


Dance of the Dog God

by Tartarun



Series: Dance of the Dog God [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), Consequences, Eldritch, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Empty graves, Everyone lies, Firudo is not messing around, Friendship, Gen, Gods, Good Uchiha Obito, Good Uchiha Sasuke, Hidden Depths, Horror, Moral Ambiguity, Motivations, Possession, Psychological Horror, Sassy Uchiha Sasuke, Secret Identity, Skulls in Boxes, Slow Burn, Smart Uzumaki Naruto, Someone is a Troll, Spirits, Strong Female Characters, Strong Haruno Sakura, Suspense, Team as Family, The Villages, Uzumaki (Junji Ito), Uzushiogakure | Hidden Eddy Village, missing nin, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:06:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 47,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28989696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tartarun/pseuds/Tartarun
Summary: Kakashi loved Konoha a little less and his father a bit more. What happens next changes the face of history. However, Team 7's destiny years later is still wrapped with the silver-haired man's and an intricate dance begins. Cross-posted on FFN.
Series: Dance of the Dog God [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126580
Comments: 10
Kudos: 84





	1. Play by Your Strings

**Author's Note:**

> Dance was an idea I had one day, after reading HPMOR, which quickly spiralled out of control. I'm serious, the characters won't obey me anymore...but hopefully it makes for a more interesting read. It's a major AU centred around events changing in Kakashi's, Obito's and Rin's generation with additional mechanics thrown in.  
> I'm rewriting the story on FFN to tidy up its grammar and rework a few scenes, so I thought I'd post the story here as well. Do NOT look at the chapters posted on the Dance of the Dog God Images work unless you've caught up to Chapter 35, the story will be spoiled for you. I hope you enjoy :).

_Classroom, Academy, Konoha:_

"Team 7 will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka read out from the scroll, anticipating some sort of extreme reaction but was pleasantly surprised. There was an utter lack of surprise and expectation among the boys in the audience, many of them rolling their eyes.

"Hn," Sasuke smirked at Naruto, leaning back on his back chair legs to face the blond upside down. "We’re stuck together for a bit longer it seems."

"I don't know why I thought I could get rid of you in another team." Naruto returned with a trace of amusement, blurring a pen between his fingers. “It’s good to dream, I suppose.”

The third named team member shot both of them looks from under her pink hair.

"Sakura-chan, was it?" Naruto turned to face her. He smiled suddenly and his face seemed to light up, "It's very nice to meet you."

"It's very nice to meet you too." Sakura greeted somewhat hesitantly. It was evident that the other two members already knew each other, so she was the only stranger. This was only to be expected, they _had_ gone through the Academy in the same section. Would this turn into a repeat of her Academy class again? With her being left out as everyone knew and laughed with each other? She knotted her fingers together to stop herself from fidgeting in nervousness.

Sasuke raised a hand silently in greeting, inclining his head ever so slightly. Despite his laid back attitude, it would be a mistake to think him lazy. He had gone over everything he had noticed about the stranger twice already, scanning her head to toe discreetly to pick out her mannerisms. The split class system at the Academy meant that he didn’t know about her existence at all, apart from a few glimpses in the training yard with a gulf between them. She didn't seem too bad- quiet, but that was to be expected; polite enough so far…then again, he hadn't spoken to any girls other than Rin for years. He had no idea how this was going to turn out.

Iruka kept an eye on all the teams that moved to sit by each other. This year was the first test run of a radical new approach suggested by Jonin Nohara. She felt that educating children to become shinobi at such a young age should be revised so that the boys and girls trained separately until it was time to graduate. Iruka agreed wholeheartedly. The girls often hit puberty first and so the hormonal mix the Academy could become was a disaster for potential kunoichi. This way, the future kunoichi would have a more focused education without becoming 'useless fan girls' as Jonin Nohara argued. The boys also had a noticeable performance increase when they were busy competing with each other for pride instead of attention.

It seemed to be working so far, Iruka noted critically. The girls were focused and quiet, and already he could see them checking out the boys’ section not as romantic targets, but as competition.

He smiled slightly, before rolling up the scrolls. "Your Jonin senseis will be around to pick you up after lunch. Dismissed."

Naruto stretched lazily in his seat, "Hey, what do you say to have lunch with us, Sakura-chan? Sasuke and I know each other well, so it'll be a good chance to include you in our team."

She nodded and slowly got up from her seat. "Got any ideas where?" She hadn’t missed that he had called himself and Sasuke a ‘team’. It had been a minute and already, Sakura was an outsider. She couldn’t feel her fingers with how tightly she was gripping the back of her chair.

"No." Sasuke interrupted almost immediately. She turned to look at the attractive dark-haired boy who was sending her an amused look, "First thing to learn, never let Naruto pick where to eat." He slammed his hands on the table, pushed himself up, and stretched his arms above his head. "You pick." The offer was casual.

"Umm." Sakura thought for a second. In the background, Naruto snapped at Sasuke- something about ramen but she didn't listen, "What about Yoshinobikaru's?"

"Sure." Sasuke shrugged and moved towards the door, falling conspicuously into the leader’s role with long-standing ease. She got a distinct impression that the boy didn’t care where they went.

Sakura turned slightly, just in time to see Naruto send her a carefully measured look.

"Problem?" She asked lightly, her lips like lead. Her satchel felt like an iron band across her chest.

"You're civilian-born, aren't you?" The blond boy smiled strangely, fiddling with the ends of his hair. The other teams filtered out, a cacophony of greetings and friendly chit chat. Was it only Sakura who felt incredibly out of place? In this team with the boys who looked at her like they saw through her? The sound of cicadas went straight through her head like it was filled with cotton.

She frowned, "What of it?" Was it that obvious? She had barely said anything. The clans had a prejudice against her kind but she had been hoping to avoid it or have it mitigated by the clan children’s long term exposure to civilian born children.

Naruto laughed, "Nothing! _Maa_ , it's perfectly fine by me. It's just odd to see a girl talking normally to Sasuke."

She blinked. …Because of his face? Or was there something else she didn’t know?

He grinned and it reminded Sakura powerfully of a fox, then strode past her. "Come on." He called back cheerfully, "We're going to be late. I want to catch the lunch hour deal."

….#########################...

_Yoshinobikaru, Restaurant Quarter, Konoha:_

The food was welcomingly hot and Sakura blew on it to cool it down.

"Sasuke." Naruto stabbed his food warningly, smiling.

Sasuke paused in the mixing of his food. "Hm? Oh, right. I guess we can do it now." He placed his chopsticks down, "First thing you have to know is that we're an odd team." He spoke to Sakura quite bluntly, "Naruto and I weren't meant to be on the same team, period. And there's a bunch of other issues so basically, this team is going to be under a lot of scrutiny to make sure we're up to standards."

"Why?" She asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

Naruto coughed and it sounded suspiciously like ‘ _bastards’_. "Because he's an Uchiha." He pointed with his chopsticks but Sasuke didn’t seem to mind, “And I have a really unstable kekkei genkai. Putting us together is a recipe for either overkill or self-destruction when our bloodlines interact." He chewed on his food, "Sorry to say this, but you were put on here to try and balance us out. You weren't put here out of consideration for what was going to be best for you, but what would be best for us."

"Just so you don't go into this with the wrong idea." Sasuke continued idly, snapping his chopsticks together.

Sakura's grip nearly snapped her chopsticks. "Your point is?" She breathed.

"Ah…" Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Don't take it like that, we don't like it either. But you have to be careful, if you feel like you're being ignored or overlooked it's because you _are._ " He looked at her seriously over the top of his food. "Our sensei can't help it, it's not his fault and it's not yours either."

Sakura's chopsticks creaked in her hands. So, she had been moved from a class of thirty to a team of three and she would still be ignored. Being told it wasn’t her fault for something which _decidedly_ wasn’t her fault rankled her. Did they expect her to fill the gap on the team? For how long? Why her? She had done nothing to deserve this slight.

"What- are you two prodigies in the making?" She snapped. "And you know who our sensei is, already?"

"Yes." Sasuke picked up a rice ball with his chopsticks, staring at it thoughtfully. "We are." He chewed on it and swirled the soup, "There's only one possible candidate for our sensei." He spoke calmly.

She stared at him. Surely, he knew that she was asking for the name if he knew who it was going to be.

"My cousin; Uchiha Obito." He answered easily after catching her look.

"Because he can help you the most." She replied bitterly. She knew the world wasn't fair but she would have liked to pretend it was for a little longer at least. "What's so special about you?"

Sasuke looked at her with hooded eyes but didn't answer. It was rich that he didn’t like her reaction and had the gall to let it show when she had been just been told that her sensei would be blinded by her teammates and leave her in the shadow.

Naruto looked at her in pity, and hate turned her food to oily ash. If she had known she was going to ruin her memory of this restaurant, she would have chosen to go to a different one. "Obito's a good guy. Honestly, he'll do his best by you, Sakura-chan. But…"

"He'll focus more on you." Sakura's chopsticks shattered in her hands and she calmly picked up another set. Sasuke slanted the broken pieces an arched eyebrow. "Because to him, I'm the place holder in the team to make it even out."

"Pretty much." The dark-haired boy agreed callously. “It’s good that you get it.”

"Sasuke." Naruto snapped. "There is enormous pressure on this team and you are not helping."

The Uchiha sent Naruto such a _done_ look that for a second, she lost her place in the conversation. “Let’s not pretend this is what it isn’t. It’ll do her no favours.”

"Pressure?" Sakura asked, tightly.

"Our kekkei genkai are legendary." Naruto explained, finger tapping a quick tune on the wood, "I'm the last of mine and Sasuke's one of three who holds his. On top of that, my reputation around the village isn't that great. The Hokage himself is interested in this team, we're going to be under scrutiny… from…I’d say, from all the Jonin to ANBU at least. They want to make sure nothing goes wrong and to make sure-"

"We're shaping up to be good little soldiers." Sasuke cut in, a bitter note gracing his tone. "So, I hope for your sake that you have a skill you can exploit. Or you'll be eaten alive. You topped your section, didn’t you? You must have something."

Her head snapped up, how had he known that? At her reaction, the corner of his mouth twitched in mild disdain: "I..."

Sasuke looked at her pityingly, as if he was already choosing the flowers to place at her grave marker. “Let me give you some advice, Sakura-san-is Sakura-san fine?” He waited for her to nod before continuing, “You have none of any experience, nor bloodline, nor a clan. You need _anything_ to be your strength.” He leaned forward, “I topped my section. Naruto might have given me competition if he had bothered to show up. Nothing makes you indispensable so far. I urge you; I _highly urge_ you to change that. If you remain a piece on the board, you’ll be taken out sooner or later and perhaps not by the enemy.”

She could feel her heartbeat in her throat, unstable as a bird with a broken wing. “I’ll be kicked out if I don’t match you?”

He shrugged. It was easy to be cold when it didn’t concern him, Sakura thought, furious. “The weak spot gives way first. I’m not trying to be cruel.-”

Naruto cut in before Sakura, in her baffled anger, lost her grip. “Don’t listen to him too much. He’s very used to working around other people.” He gazed at her thoughtfully. “From now on, we _are_ a team regardless of our circumstances. You can count on us if we can count on you. If you need help, one of us will do our best to make sure you get it. It’s not…you won’t…you won’t be alone, that’s what I’m trying to say.” He might have kicked Sasuke under the table because the Uchiha chose that moment to voice a very bland agreement.

Sakura didn’t know which approach she hated more.

“We’re not happy with this either.” Naruto clicked his chopsticks together, “Do you think we don’t know it’s unfair? But there’s nothing we can do, _somehow,_ Sasuke and I ended up together and you were chosen to join us.”

She would like to have a long _chat_ with the person who organised the teams. Fine, they put two prodigies together, that was _fine,_ she could handle that, but they had to make sure that their sensei was a blood relation of someone in the team? Wasn’t that a recipe for favouritism?

“How do you two know each other?” Sakura just about resisted the urge to sink her face into her hands. The abrupt change in tone caught Naruto off guard.

The boys exchanged a lightning-quick glance, barely a flicker of their eyes towards the other.

“We were adopted by the same person,” Sasuke said flatly. “Obito.”

“Our sensei.” She clarified, and the slow burn of fury simmered hotter. What was that thought about favouritism again? This person would have to be a saint to make sure the team was balanced. None of them had the shamelessness to meet her eyes; Naruto smiled at the countertop, thin and strained, while Sasuke’s bored impassive gaze out of the window gave nothing away.

“Whatever.” She muttered, draining her soup, and standing up. “I’ll see you back in the classroom.”

“Ah, Sakura-chan!” Naruto’s chair came crashing back to four legs. “You’re done?”

“Just let her go,” Sasuke interjected coolly. “Don’t make her wait for us.” He still had half of his rice left, the boy refusing to eat and talk simultaneously. The way he held his glass reminded her of a toast, “Welcome to the team, Sakura-san.” It was somehow mocking and bitter at the same time, the boy’s smirk too sharp to be anything genuine.

…..#######################...

_Classroom, Academy, Konoha:_

She sat stiffly back in the classroom, waiting for their Jonin sensei… this mysterious Obito. Would he have the grace to look her in the eye and explain what he would be doing? Dark, dry hilarity bubbled in her throat. She snuck a glance at the two boys on either side of her and true to their words, they had given everyone else in the classroom a pretence of including her in their tight unit. Sakura could spy the incredulous glances. The murmured question of _how_ Sakura had stepped into their lonely dance and done it so quickly.

Ami had tried to make trouble for her, instigating Sasuke in the deal, but Naruto had shut the girl down so quickly that even Sakura had felt the ringing verbal slap. This charade of false warmth left a bad taste in her mouth.

One by one, the Jonin filtered in and took away their teams. Ino walked away with a muscular Jonin with a triangular goatee and kind eyes, trailed by two boys Sakura didn’t know. “Shikamaru and Choji.” Sasuke said simply behind her and she bit back the urge to tell him that she hadn’t asked, in favour of a ‘thank you’.

"Sasuke, Naruto." A softly beautiful woman with brown hair and purple stripes on her cheeks smiled at the boys. They waved back, thawing slightly. Then, she turned to face the rest of the classroom and her smile grew colder, "Team 8, line up."

Hinata, two boys and a dog hurried to the front, instinctively wary of the sudden commanding tone from the gentle-looking woman. Sakura got the distinct impression that when the woman gave an order, she expected it to be obeyed without fail. You didn’t _get_ that kind of authoritative confidence by accident.

"Good." The woman mused and for the first time, they heard about the existence of the secondary graduation test, "If you can save three lives by sundown, I'll take you on as my students. If not…" Her eyes darkened, "You'll be sent back to the Academy in disgrace."

Naruto huffed in laughter next to her and even Sasuke smirked. In contrast, Team 8 was decidedly pale.

"She's going easy on them," Naruto explained to her in an undertone. "Note that she didn't specify what kind of lives they had to save." Sakura nodded, kicking herself for not noticing it, too distracted by the tangent of what their test could be.

"Who are you, lady?" The boy with the parka asked suspiciously, his dog gambolling around his feet "How do we know if you’re the right person?"

The woman’s smile gained a pleased edge. The boy was the first to ask instead of trotting after a stranger without question. "My name is Nohara Rin." She said it sternly, but she flipped out a basic identification card from her wallet all the same and let the genin inspect it for authenticity. "Jonin of Konohagakure. Now get going, genin, you've lost five minutes already."

Notably, she didn’t ask for their names or identification. She must have already known, Sakura realised. Team 8 rushed out of the room. Rin changed gears to focus on Team 7 and placed a slender hand on Naruto's desk.

"Don't worry, he won't be late." Her eyes flashed dangerously, "If he is, tell me and I'll sort it out."

"Sure." Sasuke answered lazily, the faintest smile softening his severe resting expression, "Is that him I hear now?"

Indeed, a cheerful whistling could be heard getting closer and closer.

"I believe it is." The woman straightened.

The door flew open with a bang as the person, on the other side, kicked it hard. However, the hinges couldn't take that sort of strain and they gave, the door collapsing to the floor with an almighty crash.

A tall handsome man stood in the doorway. He smiled widely at the staring children and raised a hand.

"Yo. Sorry, I’m late; some kid had her balloon stuck in a tree. My bitty genin team here? Ah, Rin-chan…! Which of these babies are yours?" The man swaggered forward, obviously exaggerating for fun. Sakura didn’t notice him pick up the door but it was back in its place when she blinked at it.

Rin shot him a very unimpressed look. "Obito, you're here to guide the 'babies' to becoming shinobi. Don’t you remember what it was like being them?"

“Oh, it feels like yesterday.” The man mused in nostalgia. “You and I sitting at the benches, waiting for our names to be called. You wouldn’t tell me your name; you were so nervous. But I knew better, of course, it was part of your devilish plan to make me call you ‘cute’ for longer.”

Rin rolled her eyes, grinning despite herself. Obito’s laugh was contagious. The room stared at their easy camaraderie, relaxing ever so slightly.

The man, Obito, was obviously Sasuke's cousin. They shared the same aristocratic bone structure and spiky black hair, but Obito’s movements sang of lethal grace, equally as confident and self-assured as his team-mate. The man carried no shuriken pouch, his vest half-hidden by an open greenish-grey silk haori. Black swirls and writing started at his wrists and continued up his arms, but they had the sheen of freshly ground ink instead of the dull veneer of tattoos. A copper stud glinted in his left ear.

The thing throwing Sakura off the most, however, was the sheer difference in the cousins’ attitudes.

“I missed your team, didn’t I?” Obito was sighing. “Pity.”

“They’re not my team yet.” Rin corrected, tucking her hands into her drooping sleeves. “Speaking of which, I need to go stalk them for a bit and make sure they don’t accidentally kill someone with faulty medical skills.”

The adult Uchiha waved a hand in dismissal. “I’ll catch you later, then. Introduce them to me when they pass.” He laughed at her grimace and looked around until his eyes locked onto their trio. His grin broadened and he crossed the distance between in a few loping strides.

"Team 7?" He asked rhetorically and then barrelled on before any of them answered. Of course, he knew. How could he _not_ know. "Meet me at Training Ground 7 tomorrow morning at …say 6. I'm frankly too busy today to test you, so I'll do it tomorrow." He smiled down at the three of them as if he had not admitted to blowing them off for hours.

"Sasuke, Naruto; legally, you can't come home tonight." He changed track just as fast, talking to the boys who blinked in surprise, "You can't live with an untested Sensei, it's an actual rule." He sighed dramatically, "It's very troublesome, so just camp together at your third member's house, kay?" He bent suddenly so that his face was level with Sakura's. "Hello!" His greeting was bright and cheerful, "I'm Uchiha Obito, your new sensei and Jonin extraordinaire, these two will fill you in about me, take everything with a grain of salt and remember if you're late because you're helping an old woman cross the street, it's all fine." He grinned slyly at her then straightened to his full height.

"I'll be off, kids, remember Training Ground 7 at 6. Ta ra." He wriggled his fingers, ruffled all their hair once, and was gone in a poof of smoke.

None of them even had the chance to open their mouths.

Naruto and Sasuke rolled their eyes, obviously used to the whirlwind named Uchiha Obito.

Sakura didn’t know _what_ to think. She had expected to be ignored or overlooked and had built her defences accordingly, but the man hadn’t bothered with any of them.

"Is he always like this?" She asked in slight awe.

"Yup," Naruto confirmed, taking the clipboard to scribble down that Team 7 had met with their sensei. His handwriting was neater than what she had expected from such an energetic boy. He rifled through the signatures and names, humming slightly. “Like living with a tempest.”

"Do you want to know why he's blowing us off tonight?" Sasuke spoke in disgust, just loud enough to be heard, "He's taking advantage of the law which says we can't come home tonight." Some heads turned and the last few Jonin had filtered in, so that was probably not the best thing to say just then. “We’ll have to inconvenience you, Sakura-san. Let us know how we can help.” He took the sheet of names and teams from Naruto and glanced at it, scanning it over once.

Sakura thought about that for a second, then went red.

Naruto laughed at her face. "Obito’s great." He said fondly, "But anyway, do you mind us staying the night? We can always camp out in a training field if it’s a hassle. We don’t mind." Sasuke nodded mildly.

She shook her head, still in shock from her new sensei, seeping anger tempered with disorientation. "No it's fine, as you said- we're a team now. You both live with him?" Ah, they had said, hadn’t they? They had both been adopted by him. Were Naruto and Sasuke related? They didn’t look it.

Sasuke nodded, "He's the only member of the family I can stand." There was dark irony in his tone but she couldn't quite place why.

"He took me in after I was orphaned." Naruto explained, "Apparently, he knew my mum and that was enough for him. If it weren’t for him, I don’t know what would have happened to me. I’d probably have ended up in some training program somewhere." He rubbed the back of his head and laughed, "You'll really like him." Sakura had many, _many_ doubts about this team, but the genuine trust in Naruto’s voice alleviated the worst of her concerns about the sensei or now.

….###########################...

_Byrne Park, Civilian District, Konoha:_

“I don’t have enough food in the house for four, so I’m going to head to the market first.” Sakura did a mental tally of the fridge.

Naruto winced and even Sasuke looked mildly apologetic. “We’ll help you.” The blond pulled at his fingers. What strange people- they had shown more concern over inconveniencing her for dinner than the fact her position on the team was dangerously volatile.

During their walk, she got a better handle on their personalities. Sasuke, ever quiet, with the rare word and rarer smile, and Naruto, who talked more than enough to fill the gap. Whatever question she had, one of them responded, though Naruto fielded most of them. The sun was setting and dusk painted the cobblestones in the park a bright fiery orange. Dark trees shivered on the horizon, sharp slices illuminated of the houses and shops in crisp, autumn colours. Sakura loved the village during this time. This strange intermediatory between the shinobi and civilian districts, at a time when the nin grew more active and the civilians grew quieter- there was something just so eerie to walking the boundary at dusk.

Whispers followed them. When they crossed into the civilian district proper, eyes locked on and refused to look away. Sakura was very confused, the startled strangers didn’t seem to know whether to be happy or disconcerted, fidgeting in place before rushing off. _The Uchiha,_ she overheard a mother with her child hiss to her friend. _Uzumaki._ She walked this path _every other day,_ what was going on?

Sasuke coughed, “Naruto, we don’t have a change of clothes or toothbrushes. I don’t care how you do it but break into the house and get our sleeping kits. I’ll help Sakura-san with food shopping.”

Naruto, who had lost his volume directly proportionally to the number of steps he had taken into the other district, nodded.

“It’ll be easier on you if he gets the sleeping bags.” Sasuke told her, unconcerned, “There’s no need to haul the visitor futons out for a one-night event. Where should he meet us when we’re done?”

She gave him the address and the boy ran off.

“You don’t mind, do you.” Sasuke’s courtesy was an impenetrable wall, there was no way for her to object even if she did mind. Left alone, Sakura wondered if she cared enough to salvage a conversation, she didn’t think either of them was the type to talk without being prompted first.

But it went better than she had anticipated, Sasuke looking around with some vague interest and asking questions about imported goods at the supermarket. She had never seen him outside of the strictly maintained Academy so the persistent female presence following them took her by surprise. The Uchiha just maintained selective blindness, offering to hold the basket while inspecting the beetroots on her behalf.

“I can hold it.” Sakura had no wish to enrage the twittering crowd.

“Shallow, aren’t they?” Sasuke remarked in a low undertone, perfectly casual as if he was commenting on the weather. “If Naruto were here, they wouldn’t _dare_ do this.” At her questioning look, he smirked and tossed her the vegetable. “They’re primarily a _me_ problem, if they give you trouble, tell me. I don’t stand for that kind of behaviour. Don’t mind it if I don’t accompany you to such areas in the future.”

She furrowed her forehead, “This is beyond any simple crush at first sight.”

He snickered, the first laugh she had heard from him since they had met. “I’m the heir to the Uchiha, Sakura-san. A Founding heir. Obito holds a great deal in trust for me until I make Chunin. People need _far_ less to decide that it’s worth it. He…he cracks down hard on any adult who tries to take advantage of my political naivety and Naruto keeps away all of the leeches; it’s the first time in a while that it’s been this intense for me too.”

“One of the pressures you mentioned?”

He nodded, dark eyes hooded. “Mm-hm. Do you need tuna, it’s on sale.” They strolled down the ice aisle, skimming through the fish.

“No.” She tilted her head, “Doesn’t it make you uncomfortable?”

His gaze rested on her for a long time, unreadable and polite, cold in a way that only strict courtesy could be. “As I said.” He repeated. “You shouldn’t have to deal with it too often.”

At the payment till both of them reached for their wallets simultaneously.

“No.” She said incredulously, “You’re my guests. You don’t pay for these.”

“We’re intruding and forcing you to take on extra effort and expenditure.” Sasuke pointed out. “I’ll take it off Obito later.”

“Put that away. It’s your first time visiting my home.” Sakura snapped and shoved the notes into the stunned shop keep’s hand. “To _me._ ” She said, pointedly, catching the man before he moved to hand the bagged purchases to Sasuke. “I bought them.”

Sasuke tucked away his wallet with a wry shrug. “I _can_ carry one, you realise? I’m hardly about to run off with it.”

They had nearly left, when a girl from the giggling group following them came up to Sasuke. He had been helping her rebalance the bags’ weight so it was easier for them to carry and was forced to acknowledge the stranger’s presence.

“Can we help you?” Sakura thought it only fair to help the boy out.

“Do you want to join us?” The girl with the chrome eyeliner asked Sasuke, “Ami’s dad is letting us use the house for a party for the night. You’d be more than welcome.”

“Excuse me?” Sasuke sounded unusually pleasant and Sakura didn’t need to be Naruto to recognise the signs of irritation creasing the corner of his eyes.

“I thought you looked alone.” The girl explained, leaning on the bagging table next to Sasuke. “So I thought I’d come chat. Shopping’s not your thing, is it? Why would it be? I bet you’re used to the more exciting stuff.”

Sasuke let out a quiet insulting laugh. Sakura didn’t bother to get offended, he seemed like he had it in hand.

“I don’t need your condescending words about me looking lonely.” He said, perfectly comfortably, tying the knot to hold the bag and passing it to her. “I’m with my teammate and I will _thank_ you if you could avoid interrupting.” His eyes pinned the girl to her spot. “Take your insincere offer and leave.”

“I am serious!” The girl protested immediately, hand hovering over her chest, a bit of red leaking into her cheeks.

“Hmm.” Sasuke smiled thinly, returning his attention to the last bag. The girl’s cheeks blazed at that mocking dismissal.

“Who do you think you are?” She hissed, hair falling over one eye, hands on hips. “To talk to me in such a way? How dare you?”

“Shut up,” Sasuke said flatly, apparently losing patience. “You don’t get to act so righteously after wilfully ignoring my teammate’s presence. Now, leave, you’re distracting me.”

The combination of his withering glare and her amused look broke the girl’s resolve and she stomped away with a last, dark glare.

“I guess you can take one.” Sakura relented and he glanced at her, irritation bleeding away to leave a neutral mask behind. It wasn’t very team-like to treat him as a strict guest, and if he insisted on keeping up pretences in public, she should do the same.

……………..###########################...........

_Sakura’s House, Civilian District, Konoha:_

They picked up Naruto perched in the birch at her street corner.

"Mum." She called out, pushing the door open, "We have guests."

There was no reply; she beckoned for Naruto and Sasuke to come in and shut the door behind them.

Naruto peered around curiously, while Sasuke shut the door to the silent house with a click.

"No one home?" There was a strange sympathy in his voice. He knew what it meant to have no one home to celebrate when a child graduated.

"It doesn't matter." Sakura replied shortly, "Come in, I'll cook something up."

Instead, Naruto steered her towards her own dining room. "Nope." He chirped, "We can't impose that much, Sasuke’s had his chance to help you out, leave the cooking to me!" Sasuke didn't say anything so she assumed that wasn't another rule she had to watch out for with Naruto.

“Henge socks, Naruto,” Sasuke said from behind them, evenly. “You don’t have the footwear for another person’s house.” With an embarrassed expression, Naruto did so.

“If you’re the cook, why didn’t you stay with me to buy food and Uchiha-san go to get the sleeping kits?” She asked in confusion, “Wouldn’t it have helped?”

Both of them winced.

“Sasuke is fine.” Sasuke said, hands in pockets, “And it’s because…if Naruto went shopping with you, you’d have ended up buying nothing but ramen ingredients.” The blond sent him a wronged look but didn’t refute the point.

Sasuke swivelled on his heel, seemingly taking in the decorated room. It was very cluttered; books, vases, pens, and paper piling up on the sides. Pictures of abstract colours dotted the walls and on one wall, an enormous swooping bookshelf took up the entire space. A creaking dining table was in the middle with calligraphy pens and ink pots strewn over the surface, and every so often the clock on the wall would click oddly.

She had thought that he would feel uncomfortable with the silent house but he settled right in, perching on a chair. Naruto disappeared into the kitchen, chatting small talk and she pointed out where most of the things were.

"Why did you want to become a kunoichi, Sakura-san?" Sasuke asked with his eyes closed.

She flicked a look over her shoulder, "Just Sakura is fine. I'd rather not be the lower class citizen in a ninja village." She replied simply.

He smirked slightly.

"You?"

"It's a family thing." He shrugged easily, "Got to knock Obito on his ass sooner or later."

She half-smiled; it was clear the dark-haired boy was making an effort. "Naruto?"

The blond boy poked his head out of the kitchen, "Oh, I want to be Hokage." Then, he promptly disappeared to the sound of clashing pans. “No siblings, Sakura-chan?”

“Just me, I’m afraid,” Sakura said quietly. It seemed rather crass to ask if they had siblings when they had been adopted by a cousin.

Sasuke looked around the room, "Is it usually like this? Or is your graduation day just special?" He asked lightly. His eyes lingered on the shelf of fake plants, the boy clambering off to feel the plastic leaves between his fingers. She didn’t blame him, fake plants in the Village renowned for its trees was startling on first look to anyone. The silk flowers she had made with her parents were still in place, a glorious bouquet of peonies and dahlias.

Sakura sighed, "She doesn't like shinobi. That's all, it's nothing major. She’s not in right now, she’ll be back when she’s back." Sasuke’s slight smile didn’t reach his hooded eyes.

"Family first." He didn’t say it loudly but she heard it clearly as if he was standing next to her. "Obito taught me that." She offered both of them tea but only Sasuke accepted, waiting until she had drunk to sip at his, dark eyes watchful. Naruto stole the biscuits off Sasuke’s plate.

They fell into an awkward silence, Sakura not willing to discuss the issue and Sasuke not willing to go any further.

"Well, this is cheerful." A man's voice interrupted from the doorway.

Sakura whirled around; someone had broken in? But that voice was familiar?

Obito leant against the doorway, his haori, Jonin jacket and black trousers giving him a professional image despite his fly away spiky hair, makeshift ink drawings and earring.

"Sensei." She spoke surprised. "How did-"

"Get in?" He smirked, striding past her, tugging on her ponytail in mild admonishment, "Really, Sakura? You’re all later than I expected, but to be fair, so am I. It’ll throw off anyone keeping an eye on us at any rate." He plopped down in one of the spare seats, hooked an ankle over a knee and leant back.

"Obito." Sasuke was startled, she could tell by the slight change in tone. "I thought you had a date."

Obito cracked open one dark eye, "Sasuke." He groaned, "Please be a little more intelligent, if I went on a date on your graduation, Rin would never go out with me and frankly, that's quite worrying. And plus, it gives us some leeway _._ " He leant forward, suddenly deadly serious. His cheerful air vanished and a fully trained Jonin was sitting at Sakura's table. She offered him tea but the man declined with a smile.

Meanwhile, Naruto had wandered into the room when he had heard Obito's voice and he took up a spare seat at Sakura's side.

"You have a plan, Obito-Nii?" He asked quietly.

The man’s gaze flicked to Sakura. She didn’t know why his features were familiar. But they kept blurring in her mind, changing into different faces, so many men and women, all with dark spiky hair and grim expressions.

"She knows the basics." Sasuke interrupted. “We took the chance to fill her in over lunch.”

"Good." Obito quirked a slight smile, "You're looking out for each other already. You three will be the first support for each other, and in some cases, some of the only support. If we don’t count me, of course. It’s important that you don’t play this solo, a team only works if its members cooperate."

Naruto nodded as if this was common knowledge.

Sakura twisted her fingers, "Is this about how this team has a lot of political pressure riding on it?"

"Yes." Obito said simply, "I don't know you. I don't know if you can handle the pressure. I don't know if these two can handle it. But I have no choice, one way or another I have to get you to Chunin as fast as possible." His eyes were dark and serious, "Sakura-chan, if you think you want to switch teams, this is your only chance." He stressed softly, "After tomorrow, you're stuck, I'm afraid."

"Why are you giving me a choice?" Sakura asked quietly. "You could have just focused on those two and ignored me so I stumbled along after them."

Obito smiled sadly, "Ah, but I like to think I'm a better man than that." He ran a hand through his hair, "As long I'm your sensei, I will not favour anyone above the team as a collective. Meaning that the bastards on the council can screw themselves, they can tell me what goals to achieve but they _cannot_ tell me how to get to them." A grim tone rang through his voice and it was a stark contrast to the whirlwind of earlier.

It was more than she had expected. The relief at being given a _choice_ couldn’t be understated. The entire day, she had fallen into a mire of thinking that she had no chance and no choice, that she would hate what was coming, that it was unfair how she was being treated as a swap in place holder- but Obito’s calm declaration blasted through those shackles in seconds. Naruto had been right; she could feel herself starting to like the older Nin.

"I think I want to be on this team." She spoke out loud. Was it selfish to want to carve herself a part of this fierce loyalty?

Naruto whooped and Sasuke nearly cracked an expression.

Obito sat back with a smile. "Oh good, that means I don't have to return this."

He slid three pieces of cloth bound metal across the table. Naruto picked his up first.

"Hey, we have headbands already." He spoke in confusion, turning it over.

"They have a special function, don't they?" Sasuke asked, running his fingers over the spiralling groove. The metal was cool under her fingertips, the cloth band a deep royal violet. “Tracking?”

"Yes and no." Obito grinned, hair falling over an eye. "If you're ever in trouble, wipe some blood on the leaf and the other headbands will freeze up signifying danger. Unfortunately." He admitted, "There's no way of telling who set it off but you'll be warned that someone is in trouble. Even more, unfortunately, you can’t use these for tracking because the signal is noticeable and any Jonin worth their salt can crack the encryption."

"Aren't these blood locked?" Naruto asked idly, "You probably had lots of chances to get mine and Sasuke's blood, but how did you get Sakura's?"

" _I’m a Jonin_ _._ " Obito reminded them, mouth twitching. "Did you all forget that it means I know what I’m doing? This really is fun; I see why sensei did it all the time now."

Sakura stared at him. "Sensei, that does not make me feel safe at all."

The man’s grin grew a touch pleased at the title and he waved a hand dismissively, "I snuck in a backwards kunai in your pouch yesterday so when you drew it out, you bled and I was the instructor who gave you the bandage. I think I left you the kunai, look out for it, it’s a nice one."

That had been him? Was it really _that_ easy to grab her blood for a custom piece of equipment? Was Sakura meant to feel safe about this? The boys did not seem surprised at all. So, she swallowed and accepted the explanation. But she didn’t understand why Obito was so determined to present a neglectful front when he was working furiously behind the scenes to pull everything together. Was it a natural consequence of secrecy?

"So, we all know you're going to be one of the passed teams so I'm debating just giving you the test for the hell of it," Obito admitted, resting his chin in the palm of his hand.

"You're really taking this seriously," Naruto commented.

Obito gave him a strange wistful smile, "My sensei did the same for me." He answered softly, "I'm just repaying that debt to the next generation…Speaking of which, I should do some planning for the test. I know what you two are capable of, so sit pretty and stay quiet for a bit. Uh, Sakura, I’ve read your file and I hate everything about the Academy evaluating standard so I’m going to do it myself if that’s alright?”

“An evaluation in my house?” She echoed, taken aback. “How are you going to test me, that takes hours and a training yard?”

He shook his head, “We can skip all physical evaluations,” The man said it breezily as if testing new genin on one of their two major skillsets was unnecessary. “I’ll be building it up in a different manner to the Academy anyway. I don’t care how well you know the standard fighting forms; it’ll be replaced soon enough. And it’s pointless testing you on things like agility and endurance and whatever, I _know_ it’s not going to be enough.”

Okay…so a theoretical test?

When he heard that baffled question, Obito pursed his lips. “No, I don’t like that either. You’re the top of your class, that already tells me you’re strong in theory. Do you know the standard hand codes?”

“Some.” She admitted.

“Can you take a deduction what this one is?” He snapped an unfamiliar sign at her, then slowed it down so she could see its components.

She tilted her head, unaware of the fact that she had the same expression when drawing back to fling the kunai at bullseye from a hundred paces. Obito’s mouth twitched at the corner.

“You’re giving orders to split your group.” Sakura deduced. “But not in the field. Something where you can take your time and it won’t matter. Split into 3 groups, one from each side and one from the back- you’re corralling, I don’t think this is an attack signal at all. Crowd control?”

“Why do you say that?” The man asked, something unreadable floating below the idle question. “Isn’t this movement the common sign for a divided attack?” He repeated part of the sign.

“Yes.” Sakura allowed, “But the order of the signal is odd. Most field signals are short or have the order of _objective, direction_ or _instruction,_ then the specific movement type or person indicator. So if it gets cut off, the information is given in order of priority and the group members can extrapolate. You’ve just done it in _person, direction, instruction._ You’re not expecting to get cut off partway, so the context is different. So, I think that the attack component is non-lethal in this situation.”

Sasuke’s cup clinked on the saucer.

Obito laughed lightly. “Very nice. It’s from the police handbook for signalling how to control a civilian riot. Coordination and suppression are more important than maximising the chances of the objective goal. How’s your ninjutsu?”

“Could be better.” She admitted.

“Is that so?” He didn’t sound too concerned, drawling lazily. “Make the snake seal, keep an eye on the route it forces your chakra to take and then try to replicate your chakra’s movements without the crutch."

Naruto choked on his biscuit. Sasuke hid his expression with the cup.

That…was a new exercise. She had never tried chakra manipulation without the hand seals guiding the chakra. How was he planning to judge that she had done it correctly? It wasn't like he could see the chakra, could he?

Obito's eyes flashed a bloody scarlet and she nearly screamed. In her darkening kitchen, with his face in shadow, the crimson eyes turned him into a demon.

"You didn't tell her about the Sharingan!" The sensei growled at the boys.

"Did we not?" Naruto blinked, sounding sheepish.

Obito sighed and whacked Sasuke up around the head, "Brat. I can understand Naruto forgetting to do it."

"I wanted to see her reaction," Sasuke confessed without a hint of shame.

Obito rubbed the corner of his eyes for patience. "This is the Uchiha Kekkei genkai." He slipped into a bored authoritative tone and Sakura felt like she should be making notes, "It's called the Sharingan and it can copy jutsus, cast genjutsu and predict motion in a sense. I'm not going to harm you so can we try the exercise again, Sakura?"

So, Obito and Sasuke were two of the three holders of the Sharingan- who was the third?

Forcing her chakra to twist in the manner the snake seal drew out naturally without its guiding hand was exhausting. It was like coordinating a shaking, aching hand to write legibly with a brush. It kept slipping away from her, but Sakura imposed her will on it, fed up with its disobedience. Her chakra moved she told it to. No exceptions.

Her hands were shaking as soon it snapped together and the chakra dissipated the second that she lost concentration, flowing away like water. It felt like wrenching a muscle she had never used and for the first time, Sakura understood what it meant to reach for her chakra and have it defy her.

“Seven minutes,” Naruto noted, voice slightly high.

Sweat trickled down her neck. She had never taken so long for the _first attempt_ of an exercise in her _life._ Frustration welled in the pit of her stomach and she vowed to practice until she could do it effortlessly. She wasn’t going to be the incompetent one of this team. She wasn’t!

Obito raised one eyebrow. Was something wrong? The man’s grin was so very mean, eyes alive.

"I’ll work on it." She said, as a way of proving that she was serious about this team.

His smile grew a shade gentler and he reached out to rest his hand on her head. “You did very well.”

"That's great!" Naruto yelled, swinging her around suddenly by the wrists and snatching her away from her frozen confusion, "If you have a talent of your own, they'll need a _really_ good excuse to split this team up, if worst comes to worst." The boy’s bubbling laughter filled her dining room, throwing his head back.

Talent? Her control was in the upper echelons- but that was normal for kunoichi- this was not new to her, but it was the first time anyone had referred to her with such a label instead of calling it useful.

She grasped his hands to stop herself from spinning away.

"That's enough. Concentrate now, party later." Obito sounded to be fighting laughter and she found herself being plucked off the floor and back onto her seat by her collar. "Right, this goes for all of you. Don't go talking casually with other nin, it doesn't matter if they're people you know or if they seem trustworthy. Spies rarely seem untrustworthy. This includes even Rin, you two." His eyes sharpened to razor-sharp points, "I love that woman but as a nin, first and foremost she is an unknown variable."

They both nodded seriously.

“I don’t understand.” She admitted, leaning forward. “Do you think spies are likely? I still don’t get the significance of this team. Why was it ever created if it’s so volatile?”

“Good questions.” The adult Uchiha nodded and tapped the corner of his eye. “The Sharingan, single-handedly, lifted the Uchiha from obscurity to one of the most feared clans in the space of a generation or two. Entire _armies_ fled the field when the Uchiha took up the call. There are no mentions of the Uchiha before the written records of the Sharingan existing as a warning. There are secrets bound within secrets, so many that we have forgotten the keys to most of them. Sasuke’s inheritance is something that the village follows closely, precisely because of this potential. There are no ends to enemies who would want his eyes for themselves and end our clan’s future. Naruto’s inheritance is one of the few which can trump the Uchiha. I don’t just think there will be spies, I _know_ there will be.”

He stopped to frown slightly. “Besides, I’m fairly well known myself and even if you three were ordinary, there would be interference to ensure that my students never became threats in their own right. Any secret of ours which gets leaked could be devastating. You might not think it be an important secret but there is always leverage to be found. Knowledge is the key to control and I’d rather all of you _maintained_ your control even from your allies. And yes, you’re right, it is true that this team shouldn’t have been formed…originally, but on review, there are very few people who can teach these two to use their strengths properly. You were a good fit to round out the skillset on paper.”

He clapped his hands together, “So, hence the front. This team will grow to be utterly devastating and I’d rather people underestimate you instead of preparing to match you. If I’m seen to be lazy and flirtatious, it’ll stump them when you blast through them, see? The team reflects the teacher.”

“People lie.” Naruto said, still elated from their impromptu celebration, “Even if they’re your ally, people lie. So we lie back. It’s really strange, this silent agreement that we have, that everyone with a headband is a professional liar.”

Sakura was too horrified to respond.

Obito turned to her, "Where is your mother, Sakura? I need to talk to her regarding your future occupation." A strange note winked in his voice, something more like a command than a question. “It’s strange, I had thought that I would have been able to catch her today, on your graduation, even if she were busy. Does your family not believe in celebrating achievements? The fridge was empty and the heating off,” His nails drummed on the table, a warning beat. “Who handles those?”

“I do.” Sakura shook her hair out of her face, “She's busy. Work.”

Obito raised both eyebrows, "I see. And how …long will she be busy?"

"It depends on the contract,” Sakura said tightly, the judging tone in Obito's voice rubbing the wrong way.

Obito stared at her coolly. "Why are there no pictures of you in the house?" He inquired lightly, almost pleasantly, "You would think there would be at least one; on the mantelpiece, by a bed or anywhere."

Stunned silent, she could only stare. How _long_ had he been here before they had noticed?

Sasuke winced and pulled Naruto away into the kitchen. She was left alone with Obito.

"Sakura." Obito spoke gently, "Sometimes civilians have a difficult time grasping their child is now a shinobi. It's nothing to be ashamed of, but as your sensei, I do need to know."

"Why?"

"Because they don't understand." Obito's response was carefully worded, "They don't understand the gap between their world and yours, and they try to apply their logic and motivations to you. It ends terribly, trust me." His eyes flicked to the bookshelf.

"Stand up for me." He ordered, suddenly springing to his feet, eyes intent on the shelves.

Blinking, she did so.

"Now, reach the highest you can." He ordered bizarrely. She stood on her toes and stretched as far as she could. Obito marked the highest place she could reach, then strode to the bookshelf and brushed his fingers along the shelf higher than her maximum reach. They came away caked in dust.

"How funny." He smiled at her, "All the heights you can reach are spotless, the heights you can't are filthy."

She shrugged.

His eyes were suddenly very, very cold and she felt like shivering.

"Sakura." He asked calmly, "When was the last time you saw your mother?"

There was a clatter from the kitchen, a yelled whisper, and then a sound of sandal hitting flesh.

"Sa-ku-ra." Obito drew the word out dangerously. "This is not an optional question."

Mumbling the answer didn’t seem to help. They were misunderstanding her mother, but the way sensei had phrased it was too damning to argue against!

His eyebrows flew up, "Three weeks ago!?" He sighed explosively and paced, obviously restraining his anger. "Pack your things." He snapped at her during the pacing. His ink scribbles shifted with his mood, she noticed quite suddenly, the drawn lines bunching and coiling like thorns.

"I'm staying here." She dug in her heels defiantly. How could she just up and leave? This was their house. He glared at her and if Sakura was honest, the sight was rather terrifying.

"You are not." The man hissed, _low_. "I am not leaving a twelve-year-old to live alone. You’re part of my responsibility now."

"I'm not alone." She clenched her fists, "She comes back! I’m fine, I can take care of myself."

"For _how long?_ " He didn't raise his voice but she flinched as if he had shouted at her.

Of course, he noticed. "For Kami's sake." His hand rested on his temples, as if seeking comfort, muscles tensing. "Why do I always get the stubborn ones with family problems?"

"You said that legally, Sasuke and Naruto can't go back tonight." Sakura grasped at straws, "They have to stay here so there's no point." Even to her ears, the excuse to delay was weak.

He laughed mirthlessly, "One flaw in that, dear." He rubbed the bridge of his nose, "All I have to do is say you passed as an official team and you're considered one regardless of whether you pass the test or not. So, they can go home and I do have the authority to drag you there, you realise?"

"That's kidnapping." Could he do that? Sakura hadn’t considered what it meant to be a student of a man paranoid enough to hide his charges’ education from his closest allies.

"Senseis have permission to do whatever we like to our students." He refuted flatly and dashed her hopes, "As long we don't turn missing Nin or permanently injure them, we're good. And it's all legal."

"I'm not going." She crossed her arms and dug her heels in.

"Sakura." He strode over but he stopped short of looming over her, "You are a target now. In this empty house, you are _vulnerable_. My house is a protected clan’s main residence, you will have a safe place to live, whereas here, you will have to watch your every move. There could be cameras slipped in anywhere and you couldn't know."

Sakura paused. _She had not thought of that._ Obito’s stark description of the danger that faced them was still fresh in her mind.

"But when she comes back?" She asked hesitantly.

Obito sensed her wavering resolve and pounced. "I'll leave a note." He shrugged, "With chakra so that it can't be changed. She'll know that you're safe and where to find you."

He flashed her a kind smile. He was planning no such thing. The moment Sakura's mother touched that paper, it would send an alarm ringing and the woman would be arrested. Furthermore, since this was a shinobi village and she was neglecting a kunoichi, a grand student of the fourth no less, she'd probably never see her daughter again. And Sakura would be free of the burden of her civilian mother.

His smile took on a malicious edge but Sakura missed it completely.

"So, are we going home?" Naruto poked his head out cautiously. “Let’s take the food with us.”

….##########################...

_Uchiha Main Residence, Uchiha District, Konoha:_

The Uchiha compound was barren. Empty houses, far more than she could count, sprawled over a miniature district, complete with training fields, shops, shrines, and graveyards. Dusk had truly settled now, the deep purple of twilight and the silver moonlight intertwining to create a beautiful play of colours on the main residence. Orange lanterns hung from the roof, mixed with handwritten charms.

"Right." Obito stopped outside the house, a traditional two-storey mansion, the only one to still have names on the post-box. "You two get her comfortable, I haven't registered you lot yet, so I can't step inside the property until I have. The meeting still stands by the way. If I come back to find this place a flaming wreck, I'm making you all run laps until it makes a ditch around Konoha." He poked all of them in the forehead and popped away.

"He's really kind," Sakura murmured for a lack of a better way to describe him changing her life on a whim.

"Told you." Naruto shrugged, hauling the pot from Sakura’s kitchen. "He's like that. Harming family is a really easy way to piss him off."

"She wasn't harming me." She protested, surprised. “My mother loves me; I’ve never doubted that.”

Sasuke scoffed and pushed open the door with his back, "Emotional neglect is still harm, Sakura. Welcome to the Uchiha compound. Let us know if you need anything."

"We might get renamed as Team Uchiha at this rate." Naruto joked, "Seeing as half of us are Uchiha, and the other half are Uchiha wards." He smiled at her and beckoned her in.

The house was cosy and it was even messier than her own. But the things scattered were decidedly different. Kunai and all weapons were neatly put in rows at the side, as were scrolls. Everything else- clothes, food, decorations, products and good knows what else-was scattered everywhere. A box rested on the mantlepiece, luridly coloured. It was the residence of three people who knew no matter how much they cleaned, one of the others would inadvertently mess it up again.

Sasuke tapped her on the elbow to gain her attention and pointed out a white door. "That's Obito's personal study, _never_ go in there. He keeps village secrets in there and he would have to execute us if we snuck in and glimpsed them."

She stared at him. _Execute_? What-

He nodded grimly. "Obito's room isn't off-limits if you need something from him. He will kill you if you need something and you were too shy to go in, though. Other than that, yes, we leave it alone." He pointed out two other rooms, "Those are mine and Naruto's. Yes, you can come in; yes, you really should knock first and we'll do the same to yours. Hm…take the one next to Naruto. Decorate it any way you like." He finished and walked off to the back garden, apparently done.

Naruto rolled his eyes and hopped up on the frame of the couch. "There's no curfew." He told her cheerfully, "Obito's of the opinion if you're able to function the next day, you can do pretty much anything. Training ground's out there." He jerked his head, "We might end up using it a lot to get some privacy. Rin drops by most nights; she really doesn't trust Obito on his own with two kids. Well, now that we have a girl, he's got a lecture on feminine lifestyles to look forward to." He snickered. "Err, what else." He pursed his lips, "Oh, no bringing friends back without his permission. There are some _heavy_ secrets in this place."

"That's fine." She murmured. "I'm not staying here forever."

He shot her an innocent look.

"Once Uchihas make their minds up, there's no way to change them." He told her lightly. “You think no one has tried to split us up? Obito put the last one through several feet of earth.”

She crossed her arms and half turned away. A smile tugged at his mouth.

"Oh, Obito-Nii _never_ brings back women." His speech was heavy with meaning, "He might joke around and say he might but he won't. Sasuke and I might insinuate things as well but we’re joking. So, if you do see one, she's an imposter- go for the throat I guess. Rin's a regular and so are ANBU, just leave them alone and they'll stay out of your way. Some other Jonin do drop by, ahh… you'll pick it up." He waved a hand. "Questions?"

She shook her head and turned her attention to the photos on the wall. There were several of Obito, Sasuke and Naruto. One of a young Obito and what looked like his parents, and a team photo with a clearly recognisable Obito.

The Fourth beamed out of the frame shocking her badly. "That's Obito." She murmured, tilting her head to move on quickly, "And that's Rin-san, right?" The girl was pretty with elements of the woman she would become- she shifted her gaze to the third member. Fly away silver hair hung over one eye, a mask covered the lower half of his face and what could be seen of it was serious.

"He looks dangerous." She didn't realise she had spoken out loud until Naruto hummed in agreement.

"That’s Hatake Kakashi." His voice was quiet, "He was on Obito's team until he turned missing Nin. Obito's got this dream of tracking him down and shaking him until he fesses up why he did it."

"One of the Fourth's students became a missing-nin?" She asked in shock.

Naruto cracked a smile, "Crazy, isn't it?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me checking my notes for this chapter:  
> Me: I must have left /something/ to guide me  
> My Notes: Naruto: *:o A teammate? Is that like...a pet?*  
> Sasuke: *Mikoto raised him properly until she didn't -__-*  
> Sakura: *Imposter Syndrome? What's that? :/*  
> Obito: ......I guess I'm adopting another kid? I'm 27, why am I a father; Riiiiiiiiiin-  
> Me: Yes, thank you, past-me... Very helpful.


	2. Bind the Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We start off the scheming and the manipulation early because once Team 7 has been formed, they just don't get a break. Don't be fooled by any of them.

**_Training Ground 7, Konoha:_ **

All of them were at the training ground at 6 the next morning. Obito wasn't there yet, so they settled down and yawned to get the last bit of sleep out of their system. Naruto wordlessly offered Sakura a cereal bar, the normally cheerful boy grumpy with lack of sleep. He and Sasuke had stayed up late last night, challenging each other to some sort of game, while she had retired early, exhausted by the long day. Birds moved through the overhead greenery, shaking the leaves. The early sun was golden and crisp, the cold air a fresh slap to her cheeks.

Sasuke sat a few feet away against a stump of a tree, eyes intent and flickering everywhere in the clearing. When she went to ask him a question, he shook his head with a warning glance, motioning vaguely to his ears. Her curiosity pricked, he was listening to something? Obito? Others? The chill warning from last night echoed in her head. Naruto's gaze settled over the Uchiha and an exasperated look flitted around his eyes before disappearing as quickly as it had come. He and Sasuke shared an intense conversation in rapid-fire finger signs, completely forgetting Sakura was there. Naruto snapped his fingers suddenly in Sakura's direction- saving her the time to memorize and dissect them- cut his fingers sharply across his eye line and held up three fingers.

So three people were watching them? Was that not overkill? Or was it a person per genin? The skin crawled on the back of her neck. How had they realised this? She couldn't hear or see anything. She shifted slightly to strain her ears.

"Seven, actually," Obito's voice corrected idly. Their sensei stomped into the clearing, certainly not loudly but even to her hearing, his steps seemed deliberately placed. To anyone spying, the noise must have been deafening. The man cheerfully slapped his free hand on his bracer and the squeal of nails shrieking on metal made even her wince. He grinned at them all, "Think they've got the message yet?"

Sasuke released a sigh, "Obito, I thought we were meant to be subtle."

"Oh, we are!" Obito plucked a silver whistle from his sleeve. "It's just that they can outfox you a hundred times right now so let’s not bother meeting them on their battlefield. First lesson, guys, pay attention: don’t take crap from anyone lying down. Cover your ears, I’m going to give them a world of pain."

Sakura was a little slow at doing so, Sasuke and Naruto _far_ too used to things like these to blunder here. An evil grin spread across Naruto’s face and even Sasuke’s eyes were glinting. The tune was high, so high that it cut through her ears like a lance in the split second she was exposed to the noise. The clearing _shivered,_ and her ears popped under the pressure, the sound growing more and more terrible the longer Obito held the note. It was like her eyes were shaking in their sockets. It was a dog whistle to end all dog whistles and when Obito signalled that it was safe, he was on the other side of the clearing, smirking at a pair of writhing, groaning men with hands clapped over their ears.

"Was that really necessary, Jonin Uchiha?" An annoyed voice cut in from above their heads. A woman leant against the trunk, wincing at bright lights, rather pale and rather angry. Instead of a Jonin jacket, the woman had styled bandages to wrap around a red dress. Her hands were long and elegant, and they braced her fall as she leapt down in a swirl of leaves. The last thing the genin noted were her awfully familiar eyes- bright, bloody scarlet. The only difference to Obito’s, yesterday, were the lack of black tomoe.

"Kurenai," Obito's mouth curled into a mean grin. "I had no idea you were here. If you just wanted my attention, you just needed to ask, sweetheart. But if you’re here to confess, I have to admit that it’s flattering but I don’t accept such declarations in front of my impressionable genin. They might think that this behaviour is acceptable," He changed direction to smirk at the undergrowth. “My, I _am_ popular today.”

Naruto snickered under his breath. The men Obito had caught unawares rolled to their feet, eyes still creased with discomfort.

“Hiro.” Obito greeted, smiling and something about it was as sharp as the woman’s glare. “Suga.” The men wilted under his stare, shuffling on the spot.

The woman's lip curled. "If you're quite done, the deadline for submitting the official teams was yesterday. And you call yourself a Jonin-sensei?"

"Does that matter?" Obito asked, carelessly, tilting a bored glance at the woman, "We all know what's going to happen. In fact, Naruto did you give Sakura that cereal bar?"

Naruto nodded, the faintest shadow of a grin giving away his amusement.

"Well," The man announced, "For showing teamwork between teammates, I officially promote Team 7 to an official genin squad. We're done here." He smiled at Kurenai, basically daring her to challenge him on the decision. The woman’s little sharp inhale to suppress her fury said it all. A sliver of unease curled in Sakura’s stomach at the ease Obito made his decisions. What would her life have been if she had had a mistake on her final exam and come second?

Kurenai threw a tightly bound scroll at his face. "You have two hours," she declared, cold as a grave. "Get it done properly, Jonin."

Obito pouted playfully, "You really should use my name after you stalked me, Kurenai. It's very contradictory, I might get the wrong idea." A twinkle shone in his dark eyes.

" _I will send Gai next time._ _"_ Kurenai's whisper would have frozen the clearing if it could have.

Obito laughed and waved her off with the scroll in one hand. She was gone before he finished the movement, taking the men with her. From their sensei’s relaxed grin, she must have taken the others in the undergrowth with her. Flicking the seal open, he scanned through the dense text.

"That _little-_ ," he swore suddenly, "The bitch put it all in code."

Naruto rolled his eyes, sharing a meaningful glance with Sasuke. "That's what you get, Obi-Nii," he told him, exasperated. “What did you expect?”

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose, "I know she's distant family, Obito, but really, do you have to flirt with her every time you see her? No wonder she doesn't like you."

Ah, she had been right. The red-ringed eyes were related to the Sharingan. She arched an eyebrow at Naruto who mouthed back _chief justice_ with a lot of wriggling hand movements. Sakura would have _dearly_ liked to know why the chief justice was sent on a menial errand to get a genin team registered, even if the team was as high profile as Obito made it seem. Because she was family? Other than the superficial, there wasn't much of a familial connection between the Uchiha and the woman.

“That’s half the fun.” Their sensei said mildly, his outrageous persona fading somewhat. “She gets so offended.” He chuckled, grimaced at the scroll, and stuffed it in a pouch. “You settle in alright, Sakura? Any teething problems? Be sure to bring what you need over, I’ll ward your house after it’s done. I’ll add you to my wards after this as well.” He sighed, “I need more ink.”

“What do you think of us?” Naruto asked, indignantly. “Of course there weren’t any problems. Right, Sakura-chan?” At his expectant look, she nodded. Obito’s smile eased.

"Right; line up, line up. Onto business." He tapped his foot until they did so and produced two bells from his pouch with a flourish. "I've already passed you, so I won't take that back. But if you fail this test, you're going to be doing several charity work projects," He smiled, slightly cruel. "You can imagine, things like… volunteering, babysitting, weeding…blade sharpening was a popular one in my time. You have _no_ idea how repetitive that gets for swords. You get the idea."

The three of them looked at him in horror.

Vividly aware that they were under a time limit and that the boys seemed content with glaring, Sakura took the lead. "What do we need to do?"

Obito thrust the bells in her direction and they jangled softly. "This," he announced, "Is a sacred test passed down by my sensei, and his sensei before him, all the way back to the First Hokage himself. But the normal test isn’t going to cut it. Here, catch." He tossed the bells in her direction. She caught them out of the air and examined them in more detail but they were just small ordinary bells.

"Nice bells," Naruto didn't sound very impressed, peering over her shoulder. "Do we tie them around a cat's neck?"

Obito opened his mouth to answer, then paused, looking thoughtful. "Yeah…maybe later, not a bad idea, Naruto. No, your test is to stop me from taking the bells back." He held up a finger, "I am a Jonin," he bragged, "So any and all weapons or techniques are allowed." Another finger joined the first, "You can go anywhere in the village but you cannot ask for help." His eyes shone mischievously. "For every bell I have or you lose, you have to hand a teammate over as a hostage. If you land a hit on me, you can have a hostage back. If you land a hit on me, and you have all three team members, you have an extra minute to run without me going after you." He looked up at the sun. "Two hours, guys, good luck…Go!"

All of the genin jumped in different directions and missed Obito biting back laughter at the _brilliant_ display of teamwork. The boys skidded to a halt in clouds of torn dust and spun to follow after the weaving Sakura. Obito let them go, he'd give them five minutes just to give them a chance- he wasn’t a bully. Snickering softly into his palm, he drew the real bells out of his pocket and hung them conspicuously on a low hanging branch. There, now he didn't have any bells, but neither did his team. He chuckled more openly and swaggered off to drag back two of his genin.

It had been a conscious decision to spread the test into the village proper. The more people that saw them work as a team against him, the better. Hm, _choices, choices._ The best move would be to take Sasuke and or Naruto hostage and prove to the eavesdroppers that he was capable of handling either, even if they went all out, but the funnier move would be to tease them a bit. He wasn’t a fan of letting Sakura face him alone, that wasn’t the point of this test. There was no point testing them on something he hadn’t taught or on something he had done nothing to improve. None were equipped to take him on single-handedly. Humming under his breath, Obito walked off, not bothering to hide the sound of his footsteps.

…..###########################...

_Ronin Park, Ryugeki Sector, Konoha:_

After five minutes of blind running through the village, Sasuke yanked both of them down a narrow alleyway and up a flight of rickety stairs at the back of some flats.

“This isn’t a combat test.” He said flatly, “And we shouldn’t treat it as one. If Obito is intent on throwing off the eyes on us, then the reason for it spilling into the village is for them to see that their expectations are not being met.”

“As long as we have all members, we just run.” Naruto agreed, then frowned, “Can’t we take him even once, though? Away from prying eyes?”

“We’d have to circle back to the training fields.” Sasuke pointed out, “Maybe if we lose someone, Naruto. For the minute, _this_ early, I say that we whittle down the time. Sakura-san. He knows anyplace that we might think of," He said sharply, not wasting time on being overly polite when on a time limit, "So you pick a place and we head there."

"He can track us down pretty fast, though," Naruto warned, hopping on the railing to peer at the market in the distance, "So keep a list of places in your head and we'll move around quickly. Crowded places or nah, Sasuke? Would that make it easier for him to pickpocket her? But if it’s too sparse, we’d have to depend on henge and that leaves a trace of its own."

“Well, don’t put them in your pocket to start with,” Sasuke said, and Sakura didn’t bother pointing out that she hadn’t even considered it.

“Do you want to keep them?” She asked mildly, hoping that he would take them and resolve her responsibility entirely. What was she even contributing to this?

To her surprise, he glanced at her and shook his head. “Obito’ll expect for one of us to take them to safeguard them.” His words were brutally honest. “You holding onto them might surprise him. If he finds us, you mustn’t be the first to escape. Try to slip away second or third. We’ll clear a path. Well, no, Naruto, you wanted to fight him, you distract him. I’ll need to go first to convince him that I have them.” Irritation flared but it was too early to get mad over a test with no real drawbacks for failure.

Sakura considered chucking them down a drain and wishing Obito-sensei good luck with finding them again. But in the end, she undid her bandage rolls and tucked them away against her upper arm. "Won't he think of all that, if he's as good as you say he is?" She asked reasonably. As she was alone on a prodigal team, assuming the opponent had the same intuition made her either more likely to evade them or more likely to fall into a momentous trap. She hadn't quite made up her mind which.

Naruto and Sasuke shared a look. "He might," Naruto allowed, "But then he might think we thought of _that_ and compensated for it."

The alleyway led to one of the parks. Half built festival structures loomed at them, the interlocked bamboo structures and draped covers providing ample cover for the moment. There were no builders around, it was too early, so the wind whistled through the gaps in the bamboo, like a scream. Some shinobi were up jogging and enjoying themselves by leaping from platform to platform in an aerial version of tag.

When the others weren’t looking, Sakura slipped the bells into the hollow part of a bamboo pole. It was a _massive_ risk. If Obito found them, she had essentially given two of them over as a hostage. But could the man track down _which_ bamboo pole, out of the _hundreds_ here, she had slipped them into even if he did track their path through here? Their path led them through the boxes of decorative props- gold plated crowns, strings of lights, pots of paint, embroidered robes…and instruments! She lunged for a battered mikosuzu and pried off two of its bells discreetly while Sasuke and Naruto talked between each other in low hushed whispers to determine the plan.

"You kids look like you're in trouble." A voice called out. A man knelt on the ground, not too far away, hair bound to keep it out of his face as he carved away holes in the bamboo poles for others to slot into. No nails or adhesive could be used in any construction for a festival. A stick shifted between his teeth.

"We're fine," Sasuke spoke shortly, "Thank you for your concern. Excuse us." He lifted a hand to herd the other two away.

"Your headbands are still so bright," The man murmured, seemingly lost in memory. "Those were the good days."

Naruto turned slightly, "You're a shinobi?" Now that Sakura looked properly at the man’s handling of the hammer and curved blade, she could tell that they were expert.

The man's eyes flicked to the blond boy. "Should you really be wasting time on a timed assessment?" He asked curiously. Naruto flushed but the man didn’t seem to notice.

"I never really thought it fair, you know." The man shrugged and got to his feet brushing the fine dust from his trousers. "Did you know over the last thirty years the pass rate has been a constant thirty-three and a third percent?"

Sakura paused, an awful sensation gnawing away at her stomach. "Constant?" She whispered, "Even with different numbers of graduates, senseis, and circumstances?"

His head tilted to glance in her direction and she had the awful feeling that he could see through to her sudden turmoil. "Even then," The man stretched his arms above his head, unconcerned, " _Always_ a third."

Sakura _hated_ the fact that she cared. She was doing _fine_ when she hadn’t thought about it too deeply and gone with the flow but now there were statistics and she was weak to numbers.

That couldn't happen naturally. It _couldn’t_. It had already been proven that teams passed in groups of three, so it couldn’t be anything like one person passed from each team. The senseis went individually to register their teams and at different times, it just didn’t work that it was a coincidence every time or that they changed their decisions dynamically based upon who passed theirs earlier. If only a third passed every time, then did that mean it was rigged? That the senseis decided beforehand who to pass and who to fail? Obito had said it himself, that their team was destined to pass no matter what. Did that mean other people in her class deserved to pass but didn't due to an arbitrary decision? Was there some other person- more worthy than Sakura- who should have been on the team and should have passed, but had failed due to some cruel luck?

The tests were just a cover.

There was a lump in her throat. It didn't _matter_ if any team did well or not in their test, the senseis would minutely adapt the circumstances so that the results fitted the outcome they had decided beforehand! How was this fair?

It left her feeling oddly trapped; like Sakura was trapped in a birdcage and dragged along by the current. How was she meant to feel when her achievements didn't count for anything? On this team, would they count for anything? The fake bells burned against her skin and guilt churned in her stomach.

"Oh? Have you got it?" The man shrugged with a playful smile. "Don’t you find it cruel too? I do wonder how long you can last, riding on the skills of the other two," The tone was still light but the words were suddenly razor-edged. "And you two…Have you thought about how you'll explain to her loved ones that it was your fault that her sensei neglected her, and as a result, she died."

Sakura reared back as if she had been slapped. Died? She hadn't even considered that as a possibility. The blood left her fingers and they tingled as her grip lost strength.

"Shut up!" Naruto snarled, fists clenching, but he did not say _one_ word against the possibility, Sakura realised with dawning horror. A spare part to fill the gap in the team, she had _known._ Why had she never thought about the consequence of being the spare?

The man laughed. "Uchiha-kun," His tone suddenly teasing, "Nothing to say? It must be nice to be valued wherever you go. Do spare a thought for the rest of you, once in a while, hm?"

Sasuke was pale but, like Naruto, no defence crossed his lips.

"Of course, it's easy to understand," The man said quietly, "You two have been childhood friends for years. It's quite obvious who you would save if the other two were in danger. How does it feel to go up against such a wall?" He asked Sakura. "Such fierce loyalty…you don't see it much anymore. Such a pity it doesn't extend to the whole team, no?"

So, this was a fully trained shinobi. Someone capable of wreaking havoc with their morale and minds with just a few well-chosen words.

None of them could find any words to counter the man. Her tongue was a lead weight and would have refused to work even if Sakura had wanted to speak. Something glimmered for a brief second in the man’s eyes, the faintest touch of satisfaction and disdain.

Another man ran up huffing and the shinobi handed him the tools he had been using. “You didn’t need to-” The second man coughed, leaning on his knees, “It was fine to just keep an eye on these. Sorry, normally my wife drops them off but she’s ill.”

“It’s fine. Take it easy.” The nin said faintly. “It brought back my genin days.” He clapped the panting construction worker on the back in an unspoken command to let it go. The grateful man nodded. "Well that's my break over," The nin muttered, lacing his fingers behind his neck, "Kurenai-senpai is going to have my head, I just know it." His lips twisted into a friendly smile and it was quite unnerving how the emotion behind it seemed so genuine. " _Best_ of luck, brats," He managed to somehow crack his neck in that position, the sound breaking Sakura out of her spiralling thoughts, "If you need tips on how a _real_ genin team acts, just look at the InoShikaCho teams."

"We are a real genin team," Naruto protested, without much fire. His hand brushed over his headband.

"Oh, if you think that bit of metal makes you a genin, you are so wrong," The man told him softly as if hiding a laugh. "Do you think just anyone who wears the headband is your comrade? Uchiha should understand well enough."

Sasuke went dangerously quiet. "You are disturbing a graduation test," His voice was pure ice, "Leave."

The man eyed them, amused, and, with an indulgent air, he turned on his heel and walked away. It didn't feel like much of a victory. Sakura did not even want to meet her teammates' eyes. Had the man not just prised open her confidence and poured molten acid on her insecurities?

Sasuke swore softly and pinched the bridge of his nose.

There was nothing to say.

They all knew that every single word was true.

"Ah…" She spoke up, forcibly choosing to interject before any of them said anything. She didn’t want to hear their insincere platitudes or face their lies, right now. Her nails were millimetres away from drawing blood on her arm. Let them deal with the test first but what was the point of trying her best on a rigged test? Did anything she do matter? "I can think of a place that sensei won't think we would have gone to."

Two pairs of eyes zeroed in on her.

"Back to the house?" They asked in unison, eerily flat.

She shook her head, still staring at the ground. "No, we can go back to the Academy and pretend we failed the test. We can hide the bells in some random student's pouch and…" She trailed off, skin prickling, and suddenly aware of the considering looks the two boys were throwing her.

"It could work, I like it," Sasuke announced, taking less than a second to mull it over. But, then his tone took on a faint chilly edge. "That wasn't your only reason, am I right? You wanted to see how many teams had passed." His smile had no warmth or humour to it whatsoever, "Tch." He turned away, "I had thought you better than to fall to simple mind tricks like that."

She felt the burn of fury and injustice in her chest, "You fell for it too," she retorted sharply, whirling around. “He-”

"We _all_ fell for it," Naruto cut in, uncharacteristically sharply. "Sasuke, stop baiting her, Sakura, stop rising to his bait- we need to hurry up before Obito-Nii catches up to us, or do you guys really want to do common chores for weeks?"

Sakura looked away first but shot a frustrated glare at Sasuke as soon as Naruto wasn't looking. The dark-haired boy hadn’t looked away either and his eyes hadn't warmed an iota. It seemed the man's words had drawn the boy’s true doubts to the surface and ended his forced cordiality.

"Guys," Naruto stressed, and there was a flash of equal frustration across his face. “This is _not_ the time.”

"No," Sasuke replied calmly, breaking eye contact and suddenly, Sakura could breathe again, the heat flushing her skin, "Antagonism is good. We are a failed team, aren’t we?" He brushed past her and she could almost pretend to have not heard his whisper to Naruto, "W _e all know whose fault it would have been._ "

…..##############################...

_Classroom, Academy, Konoha:_

"You…failed?" Iruka-sensei stared down at the team, sounding a bit lost. The Academy classroom was filled with failed genin, seething in their seats and biting their lips. An equal mix of rage and regret turned the air into an emotional cocktail. Mizuki-sensei was erasing the previous day’s writing on the blackboard, not bothering to hide his curious astonishment.

"Yes," Sakura repeated shortly, temper fraying. "It isn't that uncommon." A host of glares pinned her shoulder blades. It made everything worse that no one believed, on the first go, that Sasuke and Naruto could fail.

Naruto hid a chuckle in a cough, and turned it into a coughing fit when Iruka looked at him suspiciously. Sasuke just looked bored, hands in pockets.

The teacher shook his head, "Alright, sit down. For today, both classes are left together, but as soon as term starts again, your team will be broken up. I hope you learned from your failure and I trust that it won't be repeated."

They nodded stiffly and took seats randomly, only noting after that ironically, they had all ended up in the seats in which they had first met. The day’s heat was starting to build, the sun a bright, blinding penny in a brilliant blue sky. On such a beautiful day, it was a shame not to appreciate it.

Sakura took a quick headcount. There had been nine teams made and other than them, there were eighteen children in the room. Her heart sank, three teams including them had passed. Exactly a third. More of her doubt that the man had been lying crumbled under her feet. Two of the girls sniffed at her, pointedly not looking, not shameless enough to harass her when they had failed themselves. Ami’s lip curled and Sakura had to fight the inappropriate lick of satisfaction.

"Everyone thought that you would pass," A boy leant over his table to slyly comment to Sasuke, "What happened, genius?"

Sasuke fixed him with a freezing look, "None of your business."

The boy hurriedly held his hands in a placating gesture, "Geez, calm down. I get it." He glared, "You probably failed due to that attitude."

"What did you say?" Naruto snapped from the other side. "You probably failed because your sensei couldn't stand being within ten feet of your slimy mouth."

The boy's face twisted into a snarl and he whirled to face Naruto, "Stay out of this, Uchiha pet," He bit out. “You don’t get to mouth off when no one would take a monster like you.”

There was an uproar. Sakura turned her head at just the right time to see Sasuke grip the boy by the collar and physically haul him up. The chair and table fell with a crash and bounced off the tiles. Pencils and paper flew everywhere with soft fluttering and clattering. Cries of shock bounced off the walls. Her neck felt so very vulnerable, hot and cold in equal measure; if Sasuke had aimed for the boy’s throat instead of the collar, the force used would have broken his vertebrae.

" _Do you want to_ _repeat_ _that?_ " Sasuke spoke softly- dangerously- and for the first time, she thought she saw a bit of the terrifying Obito sensei flicker in his features. The boy flailed and choked in Sasuke's grip. Was he acting? The shocking display of anger from the reserved boy was more stunning than the scene itself.

"Uchiha Sasuke!" Iruka-sensei roared from the front, "Cease this behaviour this instant!" The man looked furious. Mizuki-sensei had stilled at the front, hand dangerously close to his weapon pouch. The girls, who had been sneaking glances at the attractive Uchiha looked like they had been slapped, fright overtaking rationality for a brief second.

Sasuke ignored him utterly.

Iruka’s chalk projectile struck the Uchiha on the wrist half a second later, with enough force that the boy’s grip went immediately, Sasuke wringing out the joint. The second boy collapsed, knees shaking and Iruka was _suddenly there_. Mizuki went for the boy, checking his neck.

"What was the point of that, Sasuke? Does a comment warrant such a reaction?" There was a faint growl in the teacher’s voice. “The intended joke was clear.”

"A joke?" Sasuke repeated, then switched an unreadable gaze on the sensei. “I wouldn’t call it a joke. I didn’t find it very funny. I don’t think he’s going to laugh either.”

“Koji-kun.” Iruka raised his voice without breaking eye-contact. “Weren’t you joking?”

Tension blanketed the room and from her position, she saw Sasuke’s fingers curl into fists under the table.

The boy was retching, Mizuki-sensei supporting him, but Sakura didn’t know why. Sasuke hadn’t touched his throat. He nodded like a metronome, quick and weightless like his bones were feather-light. She was terribly anxious but she couldn’t pinpoint _why._ It felt like instinct to intervene or to do _something_ but she didn’t know what.

“You must forgive the people who are ignorant.” Iruka continued. “If you spent more time with each other, both of you could realise your mistaken judgement. But your reaction was too much- Sasuke, you _are_ better trained and have a stronger backing than your civilian counterparts ever will, if you torment them for misspeaking now, what will you do when your decisions have weight?”

Sasuke didn’t answer this time, the insolent expression fading to something mocking in the curve of his slight resting smile. Sakura was too shocked to react. What was this? When had it become Sasuke tormenting Koji when Koji had instigated it?

"Sensei, that’s unfair!-" Naruto managed to half stand before he was brutally shut down.

" _Sit down!_ " Iruka hissed so venomously that Naruto sat down so fast that he left an afterimage. Sasuke’s mouth thinned. "Every single student in this room has failed at something vital to their future. Yet, Sasuke is the only one who lost control and therefore he is the one to blame. We are shinobi!" He turned a hard look around the class, "If you lose control on the field, you will _die_. You will die, your team will die, and your mission will be a failure."

He turned back to Sasuke, "It is laudable that you wish to protect your friend. But you are all peers of the same generation and you owe everyone your understanding."

"What does he owe Naruto, then?" The boy asked, the barest hint of his suppressed rage leaking into his trembling posture. “Basic courtesy?” Naruto looked away from the humiliation. Whispers started up amongst the rest of the class.

"You talk back to me when I teach you about self-control?" Iruka-sensei's voice was slow and mocking, "Hail the graduating genius." Even Sakura looked away. She may have been angry with Sasuke but he did not deserve this.

Sasuke took in a deep breath and exhaled. "I understand, sensei. Koji didn’t understand what he said and spoke without thinking it through first." He spoke. “It’s understandable. No one taught him any better regarding the customs of the world he stepped into. Let me just make this clear for anyone similarly muddled.” He gestured to the blond at his side. “The Uchiha recognise adoption as a full and binding relationship. Anyone who enters our sphere of protection as a ward, student or _adopted child,_ is entitled to the same defence as any clan member.”

The clan children were mostly missing from the classroom, the majority having passed their tests but Sakura could see that it was news to the ones left behind. She had known that the clans were tight-knit, but not to this extent. Shame coursed through her for her reaction to Obito-sensei’s immediate instinct to bring her under his wing. She hadn’t _known._

“I trust,” Sasuke said, tone utterly flat, to Koji, “That this clears up the issue between us? It will not happen again.”

“Good,” Mizuki-sensei interjected quietly. “We can leave this behind us. Koji-kun, see us after class.”

Iruka nodded once in grudging approval and turned back to the board. Slowly, the classroom eased back into normalcy.

"Control," The teacher spoke normally again, in a lecturing tone, "Is a daily part of a shinobi’s life. A ninja must have control over his life, his subordinates, and most of all, himself. It is self-control which allows you to work with the man you hate or the woman you love without risking the mission. Some of you may come to realise this in the next few years." His eyes flashed. "Shinobi seek control in all aspects of their life, even over others… If you are talking to older, more experienced Nin, rest assured that they have found your weak point and they will have control over the conversation. For that instance in time, they will have control over you."

Sakura's hands tightened almost painfully. That man had maintained total control over their talk to the point where they couldn't even come up with a counter-argument. She had just stood there and let his words beat her into submission.

"Sakura," Naruto whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "You didn't move to defend Sasuke." A question and faint betrayal mixed in his eyes.

"Did you move to defend me when that man was talking?" Sakura breathed back, feeling very hollow. “There was nothing I could say.”

There were disappointment and shame warring in Naruto's eyes and he turned away firmly. Great- their little unit had splintered thoroughly into them versus her. She ran a finger over the bump of the replacement bells against her leg. Hadn't they all been getting along well just an hour ago?

She palmed the bells and discretely pressed them to Sasuke's hand. He looked at her in silent surprise.

"If you are so good," She told him without a trace of the envy she felt, "Then, you look after them."

His fingers closed around the bells, grazing hers, but he nodded once. He hadn’t expected her to defend him, she realised. For a second, shame froze her to her spot. It took her a while to realise that the reason that she was cold was because of the breeze.

"Sakura," Iruka called from the front, "Shut the window, seeing as you're distracted anyway."

The window hinged at the top, a heavy piece of gear with reinforced glass and a redwood frame. It had somehow opened in such a manner that she had to lean out of the classroom to pull the handle towards her. Had it always been open?

There was a cold prick against the back of her neck. She froze in place, fingers still outstretched.

Obito leant against the wall next to the window, smiling. A kunai pressed against the gap between her vertebrae, its position such that she couldn’t risk moving that and impaling herself.

"Letting your guard down?" He teased, as if he wasn't holding a lethal weapon to her neck. "It’s a good idea, I admit; the boys would _never_ come up with the idea to willingly humiliate themselves by admitting they failed something."

"Sensei." She tried to speak without moving her head too much, trying to catch sight of the kunai.

"Worried about this?" Obito asked warmly. "This is just for show, don't worry. Just watch."

Show? Exactly _what_ was the show?

His fingers fisted in her collar and she was suddenly yanked through the window with a screaming yelp. She just caught sight of her teammates’ comically wide eyes as his hand pressed over her eyes and her vision went dark. Having successfully ruined her plan to Kawarimi out, he replaced the blade at her throat. She froze, struggling when she couldn't see was the height of stupidity.

There was the sound of scrambling and people yelling.

"Cut your hair. If I was serious, I’d have you by the roots instead of the eyes," Obito murmured idly before she heard two thumps on the grass in front of her.

"Uchiha-san!" Iruka's voice rang out, shocked, but Obito must have done something because she didn't hear the man again, only the sound of the window closing.

"Obito-Nii," Naruto's voice was cautious, "Let her go."

Sasuke snorted. "It's part of the test, Naruto. It's a trade, right?"

"Can't be," Naruto said, perplexed, "If we hand a bell over, then Sakura is a hostage by the rules." Obito seemed content to let them stew for a little bit. Sakura thought frantically to cover how many loopholes they had missed in the test’s wording.

"I'll make you a deal," The sensei said smoothly, "I'm impressed with your plan so far so I’m feeling generous. Hand over both bells and I'll release Sakura. You two can then try for five minutes to take the bells back from me without penalties."

Her heart sunk. Ah…. _crap._ How was she meant to have guessed this turn of events?

"We can take him if we work together." Naruto didn't sound convinced himself. “Right?”

She made a little hand motion like she wanted to speak. The pressure on her throat lessened.

"Don’t listen to him,” She said instantly, “This is just a ploy to get the bells and there’s no need to hand them over. And what do you mean just those two?"

There was a noise like Obito had suppressed a chuckle.

"You'll get in the way," Came a short answer from Sasuke. "You're not used to working with us."

She could practically hear Obito arch an eyebrow. "What a hasty answer, Sasuke," He murmured, without giving much away. "What do you say?" The pressure was back on her throat and was that her imagination, or was Obito pressing with the flat of the blade now? Had she done something right? She didn't imagine he would make a blunder like that.

"Fine," Naruto answered and Sakura tensed, dread building, "Let her go and we'll settle this." There was a whistle and a jingle as Obito caught the bells in one hand. The blade left her neck and she could breathe a little easier. Sakura didn’t believe that she was in danger but she didn’t like how she had ended up a hostage. She could feel her heart hammering in her ears. Since she was closest to Obito, she had the vaguest feeling that he had gone very still before a minute trembling wracked his limbs.

"I see. Kai," There was a strange undercurrent to his wicked tone. From the boy’s gasps, the dispelling had revealed something major. Sakura was just confused. Where did a genjutsu come from? They were just bells from an instrument.

"What!" Sasuke started, startled, "But-"

"Those aren't bells!" Naruto sounded a bit angry.

There were two soft thuds as two objects fell to the ground. "Do you think I'm stupid?" Obito asked, his mannerism growing cooler. "You thought you could trade two worthless items for Sakura's release? Is she worth that little to you that you would risk her life?"

_What_ was happening? She reached up to tug his hand from her eyes and he allowed it, moving his grip to her hair instead. Two conkers lay on the grass and Sakura _stared._

"As if you would kill her," Naruto scoffed, "But those were the bells that we had!"

Obito shrugged, "Lie upon lie, Naruto. You're digging yourself a deeper hole."

"This is your trick!" Sasuke spoke, a trace of confusion marring his tone. "You gave us the bells. You must have not given us the real bells." She almost winced. Was that a more likely conclusion than her swapping them out? She was _sorryyyy…_

There was an offended silence. "You think that I would sabotage my own kids' test?" Obito sounded like his honour and all his ancestors' honour had been slighted by that comment. Sasuke’s jaw snapped shut and he exchanged a bewildered glance with Naruto.

The silence stretched, confused and guilty. Sakura couldn’t think of a single way to tell them that this was Obito’s trick without giving away that she knew where the bells were. It was fine if no one knew, right? What Obito didn’t know, he couldn’t get.

"Choices, choices, kids." Obito tapped out a rhythm on Sakura's crown. "What to do…what to choose…"

"Fifty minutes," One of them muttered.

"We can't get close while she's in danger," The other pointed out reasonably.

“It’s one hit. We can do that?”

"Oh, what's this?" Obito sounded delighted, "I thought your sensei drilled into you that the mission comes first, always? Do you intend to abandon Sakura and find the bells in the remaining time? You could, it's what you've been taught, you might just even pass."

She was sure that the man was having fun at their expense now. What had the plan been if they had kept the bells?

"That's not right," Naruto shouted, "We can't leave a comrade behind!"

"You might not always have a choice." Obito gained a darker edge, some of the gilt stripping away to reveal the shinobi beneath. "What about you, Sasuke?"

There was an inaudible grumble.

"What?" Obito asked blankly.

"I can’t put on a display of defending one team-mate and leave the other to die," Came a grudging answer. “That hypocrisy is a bit much.”

"Well, both of you fail basic Academy cardinal rules. If they’re listening in, your senseis must not be very happy." Obito sounded entirely too pleased. "Well, I could sell that you just aren't mature enough to pass, if I swing it by the Hokage right," He mused. “Imagine being taught the same principles for years and still failing to put them into practice.”

What would they do? Would they leave her and work as a unit to find the bells? Or would they try to retrieve her and risk not getting the bells? It was a sadistic choice.

"I should point out, now," Obito remarked, "That the other two successful teams breezed through their tests."

He was deliberately trying to cloud the boys’ minds with rivalry. If they focused on what other people had done, they wouldn't be able to focus on what they had to do.

Sakura tapped Obito's hand holding the kunai with a finger and he, either obliging her or humouring her, lowered it.

"He’s fooling you," She just kept it from a shriek, "He didn’t dispel a genjutsu _at_ -"

His hand clamped over her mouth and she bit him, too angry at her message being cut off to do much else. “Alright, that’s enough from you,” Sensei said cheerfully. "Stay put."

She had been cut off too early, the man’s fingers digging into a nerve centre to turn her last few syllables into a gasp before he cut her off completely. They hadn’t understood her; Sasuke and Naruto exchanged looks, only knowing that she might have been trying to say something important about the bells. Sasuke’s eyes were narrowed with suspicion as he glanced between the discarded bells and Sakura. Would he understand…?

"The other teams? Why do we care about them?" His voice was unnaturally cold.

Naruto laughed lightly. "Let them care about themselves. We’re not on the same road."

Sakura felt her heart simultaneously jump in gladness- they hadn't fallen for the bait- and sink at the fact that they did not seem to care about anyone outside of themselves. She had seen the two of them stand up viciously for each other, and even a bit for her, but they dismissed everyone else as unimportant?

What a small world they had.

"Hand over our kunoichi," Sasuke ordered. "She's useless, but as of this minute, she’s considered part of this team and it’s our job to do our best by each other."

There was so much to unpack in that clusterfuck of a sentence and Sakura wasn’t going to touch it with a ten-foot pole. Maybe if she ignored it, it would get better.

Sasuke had gone from being icily polite, to treating her as a friend, to calling her useless and regarding her with disdain, to expecting nothing of her, to demanding her back and declaring that he would respect the label of team-mate for now. At least Naruto had been consistent.

“Yeah!” Naruto declared, “You can’t just change the rules partway. You’re holding her a hostage illegally, _shut up Sasuke, I know that’s not how it works-_ so we’re going to take her back!”

Sakura had _no_ clue how to react to any of this. Nothing seemed appropriate.

"It might work a bit better," Obito spoke slowly, "If you didn't speak of her as a possession."

She felt a rush of affection towards him.

"Don't care!” Naruto threw his hands up. “Literally, could not care less what you say right now. You’re being all slippery and I don’t have to stand for it. We’ve failed anyway, we’re not leaving her behind and we can’t find the bells in time. Get it over with.”

The man rolled his eyes. "So you choose to fail the mission I gave you? You’re ready to take on weeks and weeks of chores?"

"Yes!" The two of them snapped.

"Do you agree with their decision, Sakura?" Obito asked her idly.

"No," She said, bewildered. "We still have the bells. You can’t keep me hostage and hunt for them at the same time." The man’s mouth twitched while the boys’ eyes snapped to her, accusatory and surprised.

"Sakura, I could take what I wanted from your mind, and do so quite easily." Obito soothed and tucked away the kunai, resting his hand on her head. “This is over. You all fail your first mission," He declared. A pressure pressed against the back of her eyes and her skin felt like it was prickling and crawling in equal measure. She shivered in discomfort. He sounded exactly like when he had discovered her mother left her alone regularly.

"But…" Obito drew the word out and the tension thickened. "You pass your test." The tension snapped like an elastic band.

"What?" Naruto asked blankly. "But we failed the mission."

Obito shook his head, "You could never have passed it. The bell test's main aim is to make you realise that the team is more important than the objective," He explained. "You're put in threes to make you stronger. The moment you chose Sakura's wellbeing over the bells, and Sakura put the team over herself, was the minute you passed. You're still a flawed team… actually, you're not much of a team at all, but the potential is there." He smiled at them and pride shone for a second in his eyes.

"It was all a trick," Sasuke sighed, running a hand through his hair. Then his eyes narrowed, “What’s happening with the bells?”

Obito smiled, “I gave you fake bells to start with. Nothing you did with them mattered. Be proud, that's the first time in history that the traditional bell test had to be modified to fit a team." Nostalgia coated his words, the man lost in his thoughts for a moment.

Great. She had squirrelled away the disguised bells and replaced them with real bells. How surprised had Obito been when he had been handed a pair of actual bells instead of what he expected?

"What's the traditional bell test?" Sakura asked, rubbing her neck. Obito noticed and sent her an apologetic look.

"Basically, I'd clip two bells to my belt and give you two hours to get them off me. The one who didn't get a bell would be told that they would go back to the Academy." Obito drawled, shoving his hands in his pockets. "It's designed to put teammate against teammate and force them to use teamwork. Only then does the sensei let the bells 'slip' from their guard. If they don't," He shrugged, "They all fail. _Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum_ _._ "

"So we passed on our merit?" She asked warily.

"Hm? Yes, yes," Obito waved a hand. "I would have taken you on, even if I didn't have orders to pass you no matter what."

A weight unfurled itself from her chest. She doubted the others knew how it felt, the relief of being _good enough._ She had passed by merit of her skills and not by riding on someone else or by depending on people- it was such a minimum bar to clear for genin but she had _done it_. Sakura knew the pass rate for people like her, for people from her background. She could see the pass rate with her own eyes, sitting in their seats in the classroom. A small smile curled her mouth. It was odd, Obito was teaching them because they had gone against what they had been taught. Would he shatter other things she still believed in?

Naruto whooped and leapt on Sasuke’s back, the latter just keeping balance, “You want to go back in and tell that bastard that we passed?”

“Iruka-sensei will literally murder me for playing around,” Sasuke said dryly. “You do it. He likes you.”

“Hey, guys.” Obito blinked. “You probably shouldn’t swear at your teacher.” He paused at Naruto vigorously shaking his head.

"He got a lecture by Iruka sensei for getting into a fight with some idiot," Naruto told him, tone light with amused disdain. The boy hooked onto a piggyback with his feet. "It was brutal."

The man arched an eyebrow but Naruto didn’t explain further. He cast a questioning glance at her.

“It was on self-control.” She offered. “How it didn’t matter who had done what, only who had reacted and how. Actions speaking more than words, the like.”

Obito groaned, "Bloody Academy. I'm gonna have to review everything they taught you. Let me input some advice from my experience. They only teach you part of the saying: he who controls others is powerful but he who masters himself is mightier still."

Yup, Sakura thought in amusement. Obito would shatter several of their beliefs it seemed.

"Control is a double-edged blade," He spoke, casting an unreadable glance towards the Academy. "Yes, it is invaluable to everyday life, and far too many people put far too much of an emphasis on it, but too much control is dangerous. Locking away emotion is detrimental to mental health and it can burst out at the worst possible times.”

He sighed, “My teammate, Kakashi, had absurd self-control. No matter what happened, he never let it affect him. Urban legend is that one day he came home to see his father commit suicide in front of him and, as he stood in that blood, he turned to his sensei, smiled, and asked for a week’s leave to organise the funeral. A few years later, he disappeared in the middle of a mission, cutting a bloody swathe through a bunch of Iwa Nin. I thought he would have killed me too but he regained control at the last second. No one ever helped him because no one knew how much he was suffering. Because of his mastery, he could meet every checkbox in every psychiatrist evaluation and we had no clue," He stressed. "I don't want to see that happen to any of you.”

There was an odd wobble to Sasuke's head as he nodded.

"Great!" Naruto stretched his arms in front of him, shattering the atmosphere. "Can we celebrate with ramen?"

"…Fine." Obito's voice had all the indications of a long-suffering sensei.

Naruto whooped, grabbed Sasuke, moved to grab Sakura, but swerved at the last second, and ran off.

She blinked, left alone with their sensei. A breeze picked up, the swing on the tree bumping into the bark every so often.

"You're starting to enter their world," Obito told her, but his eyes were strangely sad.

"They’d do the same thing for anyone in my position," she told him, matter-of-factly.

He smiled and changed the subject, hands in pockets. "What did you do with the bells I gave you?"

Flushing, she confessed and he burst out laughing. “Leave them! They’re worthless anyway, it’ll be a surprise when it’s taken apart again. But, Sakura.” She looked up at his sudden change of tone, “You’re a part of this team and not just by circumstance. Your actions prove that. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” There was a moment where it seemed his dark eyes were seeing right through her, but then he blinked, and the moment was gone.

"This is a sight you should see." He changed the subject yet again, half-smiled and pushed her shaken self towards the disappearing half of Team 7.

………##################################################......

_Photo-Taking Studio, Shinobi Registration Office, Konoha:_

Teams had to take photos.

She had completely forgotten about this tidbit of information.

Obito had swapped his haori out for a more formal coat, brilliantly red and edged with pale clouds. It detailed a glorious sunrise, dark birds embroidered in flight in sinuous patterns. His earring had been swapped out for a red-gold drop, the Uchiha fan a physical weight in his hands. He used it to hide his smile at Team 7’s confused wandering.

Sasuke wore red-gold at his wrists, the pair of women’s bangles too large for his wrists but exquisitely made. They clashed with his choice of a dark haori over his usual navy and white outfit, the only acquiescence for decoration being the detailing of kingfishers and waves at the hems. Naruto had a curious combination of a carved pearl set in a red-gold base for a pin, something Obito had given to him solemnly away from the rest of them. The all-orange outfit had given her a shock when she first saw it but Sasuke had taken one look and thrown a black silk haori over it and now it wasn’t so blinding.

She was already in a dress, and to complete the set, she took a haori too. Hers was pale as the moon with black flowers painted into the silk. When Obito was done with a quiet Naruto, he came to find her.

“You must have noticed the theme.” He started gently, pulling a chair over so that they were at the same height. “You’re not going to ask why?”

“It’s to give the teams a sense of identity, no?” She asked, pulling her hair into a low ponytail. “I saw some teams go before us, they all had something unifying them.”

“Close.” He pulled out something from his pocket. “Teams might do something like…say specialised shades, or earrings or anything to distinguish themselves from other teams. The jewellery you see is a bit different. They’re used to mark Uchiha rites of passage. Red-gold for a child of the clan, white-gold for an adult and regular gold for a good friend outside of the clan. Ask Sasuke to tell you the stories sometime, he knows them better than me for sure. But anyway, I wanted to give you this.”

There was a lump in her throat as she took the hair crown.

“You’re my student now,” Obito told her gently. “I understand, you’ve stepped into a world with an unfamiliar culture but that’s my responsibility to ease you into it. We haven’t had much to a chance to talk, have we? Alone? That’ll change and I hope you can trust me with anything that troubles you.” He paused, looked at her face and changed his mind on whatever he was going to say, instead choosing to stand, smile warmly and give her some space.

She buried her face in her hands.

Her eyes burned from the back, prickling at the corners. It was so difficult to suppress what had overwhelmed her without making any noise to alert anyone else in the room- the other genin team posing in front of the camera, the team of photographers or her own team. Sakura didn’t want to go up there and have it immortalised that she had been crying!

It took a while for her breathing to even out and when she looked up, the heart attack almost got her because Naruto was sitting in the chair Obito had vacated.

“Alright?” He asked. Catching sight of the crown, he crowed, “Nice! I remember that one.”

“Naruto!” Her heart was thudding too loudly to hear him properly.

He fiddled with the hem of his haori, the broads of his nails showing recent sign of cracking.

“What?” She asked, suspiciously. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s no nice way to say it, really.” He bit his lip, “So…ah, just bear with me, yeah?” Naruto was the friendly one, she reminded herself. “I’ve met my fair share of people who would kill to be where you are now.” He said bluntly. “Danger be damned, all they see is the prestige and gain from being associated with the last Uchiha. _This_ isn’t normal, no matter what Obito tells you. New genin aren’t just taken into the Uchiha’s domain like this, it’s only because the clan is so small and this is a team with Sasuke and me in it.” The boy nodded at the expensive hair crown. “They took me in and gave me a chance to change my life. If I see you take advantage of their generosity, I’ll go to Jiji personally and ask for you to be removed from the team.”

The people he was warning her about were out of earshot, Obito flirting with the cameraman and Sasuke watching him, bemused. Naruto had planned this carefully, the excited noise of the other genin team covering any chance of them being overheard.

Sakura should have been insulted or alienated, but this was a sentiment she could relate to and all she felt was tired. Of course, Naruto would want to protect his family from anyone with greedy motives, wouldn’t she want to do the same?

She picked up the hair crown. “Do you want it?” She asked calmly.

He blinked, her response not tallying with the expected affronted reaction. “No-”

“It’s very pretty.” Sakura continued, without waiting for him to respond. “But that’s all it is. I can’t wear it every day, nor can I sell it. As long as I’m associated with this team, I _might_ get a chance to wear it at formal events until I turn eighteen. I can’t even melt it down, no smithy would do that for me. So, as far as I’m concerned, potentially exchanging my life for a nearly useless, expensive bauble isn’t a deal that’s worth it. You must have hung out at an insane wing because what you’re suggesting is pure lunacy.”

Naruto beamed. “That’s great! I knew I was right about you, Sakura-chan. You won’t try to get between us, or get Sasuke to date you, or flaunt your new status, or do anything worrying, will you?” His eyes crinkled at the corners but she got the impression that he wasn’t laughing at all. “It’s lovely to have another person to depend on.” He said, standing to go.

Her hand shot out and snatched his wrist. He turned back, not surprised at all, still smiling that fake smile. “What’s your problem?” She asked scathingly.

He shook her hand off with a flick of the wrist, then softened slightly and sat down again. “You might think I’m being unfair, warning you before I have any proof that you’re thinking something that you’re not supposed to be. But if I let it get that far, we’d have a bigger problem than just your hurt feelings, Sakura-chan.” _Rage_ shivered deep in her chest, trailing heated fingers down her ribcage.

He saw it too. “You saw what happened today but I don’t think you understood,” Naruto said quietly, leaning back and crossing his arms. “What Koji did today could have got him in _serious_ trouble. He insulted the Uchiha to Sasuke’s _face,_ amongst other things. If he had done it _anywhere_ but the Academy, the senseis wouldn’t have been able to cover for him. You, too, grew up in the same environment as Koji, I’m telling you _now_ that the shinobi world outside of the Academy is very different. There was a law passed a few years ago that clan children couldn’t use their disciplines or specialised techniques in the Academy, otherwise, it would be too unfair and everyone wouldn’t start equal. It doesn’t work, the clan kids do what they have to in the Academy and the second they graduate, they switch back to their training. It’s a harsh shock to the civilian students that the people they’ve been on even footing with suddenly race ahead. You’re not taught about culture or customs. They’re not something which _can_ be taught. They’re learned via osmosis. The Academy is a safe space for such mistakes, they’re written off, it’s the _Academy,_ what do you expect.”

It was like being doused with cold water.

That was a familiar line- the civilian group children confident that they could match their clan born peers, but that pride was built on shaky sand, wasn’t it? She had seen for herself how many of them could make the cut outside of the Academy where no one cared about making things fair. Out of her entire batch, Sakura was sure that she was the only one and that was a near fluke.

Why was it a shock to know that the people suited to be shinobi were the children born into mercenary clans? They had grown up with a different mentality. They had played with blunt weapons when she had been playing with dolls. It was one thing to get training at the Academy every morning and afternoon for the past five years. It was another thing altogether to be born into an environment where the shinobi arts permeated every corner of life.

Of course, she had noticed that the teams had neatly segregated the clan and civilian children. How could she have missed it? But it had been just another facet of prejudice to her back then, not a realisation that an invisible line had been drawn between the teams expected to make genin and the children expected to fail.

Naruto sighed and softened more at the look on her face. “I _know._ But there’s no way around it other than separating any civilian child and taking them into clans when they decide that they want to be shinobi. And that’ll never happen.” He pressed the hair crown back into her cold hands, something like guilt flickering at the corner of his eyes. “Clan sentiment isn’t law. It’s…hard for civilian genin to progress without a famous teacher or a good team. We’ve made progress but it’s not enough. Obito-Nii is very particular about disliking the change from the Academy to the field, so he wants you prepared for it, that would be my guess. I’m sorry to do it now, I really am, but you have to know. Keep it, Sakura-chan. We’ve got your back if you’ve got ours, that’s all we ask.”

The lump in her throat was now for entirely different reasons.

Their team photo ended up being a beautiful piece of work. Obito hung it on the wall with the others. The genin smiled brightly at the camera, clearly eager and excited, the Jonin sensei more reserved, but still visibly pleased, flashing a victory sign. Everyone in the photo was so very pretty Sakura thought sourly after the shoot, examining the picture. But most of all, her eyes kept going back to the fiery unification as if drawn by a lure; Obito’s earring, Sasuke’s bangles, Naruto’s pin and her hair crown.

Their team connected by something so visible that no one could deny it.


	3. Step into my Parlour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team gets their first C-rank!

_Uchiha Main Residence, Uchiha District, Konoha:_

Long missions in the sweltering forest nights had permanently damaged Obito’s sleep schedule. As the waning moon rose higher and higher, its light tinted orange by the red clouds, it cast eyes on a meditating Uchiha Obito in his own backfield. Dragonflies perched on his shoulders and fluttered past his face, curious about the being that was, at once, both a part of them and apart. Black water lapped at the jetty’s edge, shattered pieces of the moon breaking into rippling arcs of light.

Everything remained serene until a tabby cat slipped through a strategic dip in the earth beneath the fence and padded to the still man. It placed its paws on the man’s thigh, dropped the scroll it was carrying and rubbed its head against his hand until Obito deigned to acknowledge its efforts.

“Alright, Hina, I give.” He chuckled and broke off to play with the adolescent cat swiping at his fingers. “Did you have any trouble?” It yowled at him, but quietly. The cats didn’t mind their young wandering near him if they were discreet. Blood spoke louder than actions to an extent. Obito wondered how long it would take for them to forgive him.

Reading through the scroll once, he grinned and unwound smoothly to his feet. The cat rolled in the long grass and leapt after passing dragonflies, sending the jewelled swarm scattering. “Thank you.” He told it warmly, “What would a clever girl like as a reward?” Its ears pricked and he almost laughed.

After Hina was settled, he wandered inside and swapped the smouldering embers of the incense for some fresh sticks. But try as he might, he couldn’t pull the trick of his youth. If he closed his eyes, he could no longer escape into memory, his other senses too honed in the quiet to be fooled so easily. The upper floor was a stripe of darkness, the only light in the house coming from the lone hanging lantern in the garden door, the moon, and the pinpricks of incense sticks. He needed the time to think and categorise his reactions- there were many things in recent days that Uchiha Obito didn’t like and a consistent front was necessary.

His team’s signatures burned steadily from upstairs…Hm…Sakura’s room this time. He wondered which of them would be brave enough to stand up to the pressure first. They had to realise that it was healthy to disagree in a team and to set boundaries. This…whatever desperate ambition was fuelling them right now, it would soon run on fumes. He stopped before barging in, frowning.

He wasn’t sure that he liked how easy it was to win the girl’s loyalty.

He wasn’t sure that she _even_ realised. Gentle words in the face of adversity would soften anyone’s heart, it was only natural. But the problem was that Obito wasn’t the only one who could be kind. He sighed, putting it aside for the moment. It wasn’t anything pressing, he had the girl in custody. Anyone who wanted to influence her, and hence his family, had to go through him first.

"Alright, team!" Obito was only too happy to break their comfortable schedule. He slammed open the door and made sure to be as loud as possible. “Up, up. Time to have fun!” He clapped his hands together and grinned at the neat row of barely awake children. “There are some flowers which only bloom at night, you know. Owls and wolves come out to hunt. The fireflies dance in the groves. If you sleep the whole midnight hours away, this silent hidden world will pass you by!”

Sasuke cracked open an eyelid, stiff with sleep, and peered up at him. That one was not happy.

"Obi-Nii…" Came a grumpy warning from the blond boy curling into his covers and pulling his pillow over his head.

Sakura, to his pleasant surprise, woke instantly. She blinked at Obito, then looked outside the window.

Three weeks had passed since they had passed the test and true to his word, Obito hadn't made them do charity work. Instead, they were doing the same jobs and getting paid a minimal wage! Obito had cackled for hours at the sight of their pissed-off expressions when they had realised.

" _Ahh, now. Don't complain." He had replied, terribly amused at their death glares, "How else are we meant to get civilians to trust us?" They had not appreciated his abysmal failure to keep his hilarity hidden._

"If you don't get up this second, the lovely C rank I saved for you will go to Team 8 and you can drag the lake for rubbish again." Obito's lips twisted slightly as his team all but _leapt_ from their futons and ran to get ready. He wasn't sure if he should stop them from all dragging their futons into each other rooms or not, but since the boys were used to it, and neither was rude enough to leave out the third member, it had become a tradition to walk into the three rooms and find two of them completely empty. In fact, he was sure that this was unhealthy in subtle ways when they were all forcing themselves to adapt to each other instead of growing to slot together, but he knew they wouldn’t listen to him.

There seemed to be a desperation in all of them to become a team. He'd seen Naruto rubbing his thumbs together until they were red and blistering whenever something happened to cause even the mildest friction in the team. Sasuke seemed to choke back on his natural sarcastic comments in an attempt to not alienate Sakura and Sakura just agreed with whatever the boys proposed just to stop the conflict. Needless to say, it was failing miserably and the cooperative effort not to be antagonistic just seemed to increase tensions in the team itself. Naïve children… every single one.

Sakura had snapped at Naruto yesterday after he had accidentally tripped her into the mud. Naruto and Sasuke seemed to subconsciously resent compensating for another person in their duo. Their years of cooperation tripped them every time they fell back on instinctual action. He was sure that if either of them realised they felt that way, they would be horrified, but at the moment their teamwork was clenched and forced. Sasuke and Sakura were another can of worms altogether; Sasuke was making a genuine attempt to be less caustic to not push Sakura away but her agreeing to what he said every time made him quite irritated, even if he didn’t know why. D-ranks absolutely did not help.

Even their little tradition seemed to be born of a desire to try and force comradeship instead of letting it evolve naturally. Letting other Nin near his team at this point would be a psychological disaster and if he knew one thing, it was that his fellow Jonin were arrogant bored bastards who would see nothing wrong with 'testing' the prodigy team to make them stronger.

Life had been easier when he hadn’t the insight to understand why Minato-sensei had hidden strained glances when the man thought that Obito hadn’t been paying attention.

_Rin had reduced the number of her visits with the creation of her new team. But the conversation they had had when they had gone out to celebrate their twin milestones still stuck in his head._

_Rin swirled her sake around the flat cup with a tilt of her head. Red flushed her cheeks and when she smiled at him and rested her cheek on her hand, his heart skipped the familiar beat._

" _You look frustrated." She commented warmly, "Tonight is to us, Obito. Forget about everything else.”_

_His sake burned on the way down, searing through his throat. His entire body was hot but that was probably the alcohol._

_She laughed at his morose expression and stretched like a cat. “Want to swap?”_

_“I want to deal with the Hyuuga even less,” Obito said flatly, suppressing a smile._

_“Familial problems are better than a flaw in the team.” Rin pointed out, running her finger around the rim of the cup idly. “Dream team not working out?"_

_Obito snorted and ran a hand over his face tiredly._

" _You could say that." He admitted. "It's partly because they're aware of all the pressure. They think they have to be a perfect team and succeed in whatever they do. And the fact they don't, causes their self-esteem to fall and their desperation to rise, and of course, it's a vicious cycle."_

_“Sounds like a bitch.” Rin agreed far too easily. “Glad it’s not me dealing with that. How_ _are_ _you dealing with that?”_

_“Is badly an option?”_

_She looked at him, then rolled her eyes._

_“The carrot and stick.” He admitted, bringing his drink to his mouth._

_“That’s cruel,” Rin said thoughtfully. “Hey, Obito. You should break them.” She suggested like it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do._

_Obito paused. “Hm?" Rin found herself pinned by a dark pair of eyes._

_She didn't falter, "Show them that sometimes failure is the only option." She pointed with her cup to where the man knew there was a vicious scar from a mission going disastrously wrong. "And perhaps they'll relax and understand that teamwork cannot be forced."_

Obito closed his eyes and leant against the wall as he listened to his troublesome team hurriedly get ready before his patience ran out.

"Sensei, why are we going on a C-rank at two in the morning?" His kunoichi's voice interrupted his idle musings. If he was tracking how long they took to get ready and what they packed, they didn’t realise it.

"Why not?" He smiled at her, knowing it would likely infuriate both her and the two boys eavesdropping on the conversation. She huffed at his careless attitude and moved off.

"Oh? Are we going to see other people now?" The barest of margins kept Sasuke’s words from insolence. Half-lidded eyes communicated their disapproval. "It's been so long that I might have forgotten how to talk to strangers." Tufts of hair stuck up ruining his stern look.

Obito chuckled and spun a scroll on his finger. "Being the _excellent_ sensei I am, I went and…acquired a lovely mission for all of you to enjoy. Since I know how eager you all are to stop those D-ranks…I thought I’d do something nice. If you don’t want it…?"

He let their half-hearted glares go. Obito would insist on them practising soft diplomacy another day. Not even he was shameless enough to expect sweet words when he had broken them out of bed.

Naruto strolled down the stairs, wrapping bandages around his lower arms. "What are we doing? I swear, Obi-Nii if your version of a C-rank is to do D-ranks _outside_ of the village, I am going to snap."

“Who cares?” Sasuke sighed, trying very hard not to sound interested. “As long as we get a change of pace.”

Obito tried very hard not to laugh in their faces.

"No, no, no." He waved the scroll in their faces. "It's my team's first time outside the village, I picked a good one!" Hina moved in the corner of his vision, large green eyes the only thing visible of her, watching his kids hungrily. He held out an arm to redirect Sakura gently, steering her towards the others in a playful show, making sure that the cat was hidden. Neither of the boys would spot her, they had lived with the cats too long to notice their eyes.

….###################################################...

_Konoha’s Witching Woods, Fire Country:_

They watched the sunrise from the great pines on the crest of a plunging hill.

The land shivered beneath them, a sea of dark forest as far as the eye could see. The curve of the world was _just_ visible at this height and spread. Blood gold light spilled over the horizon slowly, the night black replaced by dark violet then royal red as the sun ascended. For a second everything was silent, even the wind frozen before bird song fluttered into the air, the animals waking with its rays as if wordlessly summoned. This slow majestic inevitable procession took him back to the Fourth’s coronation, the stylised sun embossed on the back of the man’s fluttering coat. The world had stood still for him too.

No matter how many times Obito saw it, it never failed to take his breath away.

His team no longer complained about him dragging them out of bed. He had waited for the maximum he could for them to reach this place on time. The Chunin patrol had given him strange looks but none of them was going to challenge his authority over his own team.

All of them needed a beautiful memory if they ever wanted to step into this life fully. They needed _something_ to hold on to and if they hadn’t consolidated the team yet, Obito could play his backup plan of natural beauty. But most of all, he wanted them to see this. He wanted their first time leaving the village to be special, not just a midnight haunt through their forests until their destination.

There were things they all needed to learn. Konoha’s strength lay in these lands, these wild, dense dangerous forests that no one knew how to map out properly. The Shodai’s trees ringed Konoha, an incredibly defensive tall wall. The Witching Woods wound around them, a poisonous place where they had to know to forage properly and handle the tarantulas in their webbed enclaves. Every other fruit plant was poisonous and the pollen from many beautiful flowers was hallucinogenic. The insects could easily overwhelm any genin if they were careless.

To their south and east where the land grew flatter and wetter, their borders with River Country, Wave country and the coastline, the Witching woods faded into the Murkwoods, the mangrove maze where alligators lurked under the water and every animal scratch carried disease. The Wolfswood lay to the north, a swathe of forest where maneater wolf packs roamed. Religious pilgrims wandered near the Valley of the End and constructed way shrines under the great trees. Obito had been there only once and the sight of abandoned overgrown shrines nestled in great roots had thoroughly unsettled him. Nothing lived in the Ghostwoods, the trees pale and petrified, more akin to stone than wood.

Fire Country was a veritable fortress of winding jungle tracks, abandoned cities, wet green heat, and slit eyed predators. The irony was not lost on Obito that the safest place in such a country was the mercenary village. It was rare to loose squadmates to the forest dangers, especially if there was an experienced tracker among them but accidents always happened and genin were so very vulnerable.

On the path to their destination, Naruto suddenly stopped, staring at the small patch of sky visible between the dense canopy. The humidity had plastered his hair to his neck but the boy paid it no attention. "Tanzaku Gai. We’re on a collision course for it." He frowned, the dark shadows from the branches playing interesting effects on his face. "You're taking us to the Genin Cess Pit."

Obito marvelled at the boy’s sense of direction, his uncanny talent for locating himself concerning landmarks rearing its head.

"The Genin Cess Pit?" His kunoichi asked warily, flipping her damp hair out of her face.

"A place where all the failed genin tend to gather." Sasuke filled her in, apparently in a good mood at the prospect of a C-rank. "And due to their partial training, they tend to stick together and form local yakuza."

"They're criminals?" Sakura asked, tilting her head, slightly incredulous. Obito understood her confusion; the fact that failed genin who had wanted to become part of the military became criminals instead was a bit ironic.

"They're fantastic informants, that's what they are," Obito called forward from his rear point lookout. "We leave them alone and sometimes look the other way. In return, they keep crime rates low and the town safe. If the frontier isn’t maintained, the woods swallow the city back up piece by piece."

" _Yakuza_ keep the crime rate low," Sakura repeated, the concept apparently still not quite sinking in.

"We do re-evaluate the better ones after they mature out. Some people need time and a different environment to grow into their strength." Obito confessed shamelessly, "They can't get in the ranks if they don't show discipline after all."

The forest wilderness slowly faded to a beaten track, then to a paved road, looping lanterns hanging from branches and Sakura suddenly placed their location on a mental map. Sensei had taken them as the crow flew but she knew the caravan route for the city and its meander through the woods. Signs of civilization started to show, Fire Country’s cities were all hidden in its great forests- not to the extent of the Konoha of course- but to the point that foreign visitors whispered that the trees walked at night and the cities moved to a different spot every time.

"Anyway, we've been called to provide a cover for an official investigation while the Brotherhood hunt down the guilty party in an incident." Obito drawled, idly flipping a knife out of his pouch, and demonstrating so Naruto didn’t take his fingers off in a fast kunai finger trick. "All we have to do is stand there and look professional."

"That’s a rubbish C-rank, Obito-Nii," Naruto told him flatly, before completing the trick in one smooth flash of steel. He swiped at the moths circling his head and they fluttered to safer distances.

"Officially." Obito's mannerism didn't change but all three genin pricked their ears. "Unofficially?" He shrugged, "Well, I imagine anything could happen." He grinned at his team, not that any of them could see it with the sighting of a massive mite colony in one of the trees. The genin _fled._

….################################################...

_Tanzaku Gai, Konoha’s Witching Woods, Fire Country:_

Sakura gazed at the town of Tanzaku Gai in half-concealed, disgusted awe.

"It's so crowded." Unlike the capital or the beautiful cities, Tanzaku Gai had been built for commerce second and an outpost first. Its walls were sloped, metal gleaming under the cracks of overlaid vines. Too much had been fit into too little space. People were jam-packed in the buildings, waving and shouting. Civilians strolled down the streets carrying bags or boxes. Shops promoted goods by yelling into microphones and stacking perilous swaying columns of good on their counters. Street games were at every intersection- cards, dice, or painted tokens. It was crowded, loud and bright even in the early hours of the morning.

"Tanzaku Gai." Obito smiled, "Fortunes are won and lost in this city. Come, we'd better check in with the Banchou." People called to him on the street, cheerfully greeting the Jonin and he waved back with a friendly smile. “Keep good relations with them, guys. They’re our people.”

"It doesn't look very disciplined to me," Sasuke whispered to Naruto, a touch snide, but stopped short of rolling his eyes, and followed Obito.

Naruto shot him a look that plainly told him to behave before waiting for Sakura to catch up.

"First time out of the village?" He asked with a smile. A street pedlar walked by hawking sweets. The smell of roasted nuts filled the air.

"Pretty much. I was too young to be allowed on escorted trips before the Academy started." She answered, still drinking in the sight.

Naruto chuckled, "Same here. We haven't been allowed to set a foot outside of Konoha before." His tone was oddly wistful as he looked around.

"Sasuke has the Sharingan," Sakura spoke quietly. "What do you have?" It was strange- in the weeks leading up to the C-rank, she hadn't seen hide or hair of any strange talent in Naruto at all. Well, apart from the fact he could run them all into the ground and then some (including Obito) before his chakra reserves even had a dip.

Naruto laughed, winked, and held up a finger to his lips.

If it had been even three weeks earlier, Sakura wouldn’t have noticed the nervous edge to his laughter or the slight crease of his mouth tightening. So it wasn't something she could know or it was madness to talk about it in public. More secrets. _Brilliant_.

"Are you two planning on working any time today?" Sasuke interrupted sarcastically from ahead. "Or would you like to finish your conversation first?" He adjusted the strap of his shoulder bag and nimbly stepped aside as two racing children sped past. The dark-haired boy didn’t like the eyes on them. Sakura didn’t like it either- the unblinking staring like she was on display before the attention faded into friendly greetings.

Naruto's smile became a touch more genuine and a brief burst of irrational hot jealousy bloomed in her chest at the demonstration of the close bond between the boys.

"Oh, Sasuke." Naruto sighed dramatically. Sasuke rolled his eyes and carried on walking. "I have waited a lifetime for you to realise that, yes you do care about me and want to spend more time with me." He placed the back of his palm against his forehead in an exaggerated gesture. "My heart- where is Obi-Nii?" Even Sakura turned to look at the abrupt flat change in the blond boy's voice. "How did you manage to lose him? He was _three_ feet from you."

Sakura blinked and scanned the street- no familiar mop of black hair anywhere. Sasuke seemed to have a similar difficulty believing that he had been fooled so easily. A slight dusting of unease prickled behind her ribs, skittering up and down her side and she squashed it. He was a Jonin and in the heart of Fire Country. How could he not be fine? He wouldn’t leave them when he was so worried about the boys. He couldn’t.

The three of them didn’t notice that they gravitated towards each other while looking for the man.

"How can helping you be a bother?" Their sensei’s voice floated over, loud and pleasant. And then the _irritating_ man came into view, arms laden with shopping bags, laughing uproariously at what a stooped old woman was wheezing away under her breath. Sakura released the breath she hadn’t known she was holding.

"Where do I take these to, Baa-san?" He asked cheerfully, holding up the heavy bags as if they were nothing. They probably were nothing to him, Sakura thought with faint incredulity. The man grinned at them and nodded discreetly for them to come over. Naruto and Sasuke seemed to sigh in unison and the former slapped a hand down his face.

"You mean, he wasn't kidding about helping old women cross the road?" Sakura asked dryly.

Sasuke groaned. "It gets worse. Wait until the cats. We never get anything done those days." Naruto mumbled something from behind his hand and it sounded decisively uncomplimentary. "Obito." Sasuke fell into his impenetrable polite mask. "Leave a clone to help her and let's go. I apologise ma’am, but we’re busy."

"Oh, is this your son!?" The old woman bent right into Sasuke's personal space; the boy jerked back instinctively, neutral mask morphing into a sneer with the intrusion-

Her walking cane swept his foot out from under him and Sasuke collapsed in a mess of limbs.

"Children are so adorable at this age. Don’t you miss their energy, sensei?" The woman's mouth curved into something too lined and toothy to be called a smile. Obito smiled at his downed genin with a glimmer of wicked glee.

Naruto's eyebrows shot up, the faintest hint of respect and chagrin surfacing for a second. Sakura stared. The woman was trained? Remembering her lessons, she inspected the woman's fingers. Civilians never had rings of tough skin around the base of each finger. Shinobi on the other hand were lucky if they didn't develop calluses from spinning kunai around like parlour tricks.

There were dark bands around each thin finger, like knobbly rings on the old woman's hands. Judging by her age more than her skill, any nin who survived to retire and kept the shadow of their prowess had to be Jonin.

Sakura bowed slightly in respect. She got a pleased cluck for her troubles.

Sasuke sighed through his nose and clambered up, brushing himself off. A glint of chagrin flashed through his face before he bowed deeper and held the position, realising his mistake.

On the other hand, Naruto bounded up, all unpleasant thoughts vaporised, and started asking questions so fast that he sounded like a yapping dog. Even the indulgent expression on Obito's face faded to mild amazement. Sakura and Sasuke dragged him back unceremoniously, the former aware that talking in such a fashion could be rude, and the latter unwilling to let him so close to an unknown nin.

"I wasn’t done!" Naruto cried, indignantly.

The woman cackled and thumped her cane with a solid sound on the paved ground. "Energetic children are good! Your team is much cuter than they look. At my age, I like such surprises, so I'll give you a challenge." She waved a finger at the mostly unruffled team. "If you guess my name, I'll give you a treat. That's what retired old women past their prime are supposed to do, no?"

Obito clicked his tongue. "Baa-san. You are old in body only." He smiled beatifically. "Your mind is still as sharp and that's all that matters. We are only as old as our minds are." While the woman wheezed in laughter, Naruto pulled himself free interrupting Sakura's internal mini-rant about how impossible the test was.

“Baa-san.” The blond boy asked, “Can I see that cane of yours?”

“How is she meant to stand, then?” Sakura asked quickly. A small grin flickered over Sasuke's mouth like lightning. With a light toss of his head, he signalled for Sakura to be quiet, eyes glittering in anticipation.

The boy shrugged at her. “Obi-Nii can support more weight. It’s fine. You don’t look very heavy, Baa-san.”

Obito slanted a ‘ _please don’t mind him’_ look at the woman as she placed the cane in Naruto’s hands with minimal complaining and a wrinkled smile. Despite the suggestion, he didn’t offer to support her and she never asked to be supported.

“What are you thinking?” Sasuke wandered up, ignoring both adults, to focus on his brother. “Hidden weapon?” Naruto turned the cane over in his hands, fingers feeling for any hairline seams.

“I was,” Naruto admitted and Sakura took a back seat to watch the deductive steps. She was too inexperienced with these matters to input much. “But look, it’s heavier than you’d expect.” He balanced it neatly on the thin edge of a finger. “The weight centre is different too. But not too different…” He struck along the cane in regular intervals and smiled when he found what he was looking for. “Metal core. There’s still static on the handle, look.” The boy touched the metal handle gingerly.

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed instantly but Sakura failed to grasp what that piece of information signified. “Ah. Electricity induced muscle spasm.” He clarified shortly after seeing her face.

“Baa-san." The blond boy asked again, more idly this time, as if just asking for formality. "You're dangerous, right?"

"Am I?" The woman asked just as idly. “Am I a danger, sensei?”

“How could you be a danger to anyone?” Obito said, matching their mild tones. “Naruto, watch your implications.”

"Hypothetically, could there be a Bingo Book entry for someone who might or might not be a danger with your skillset?" Naruto tilted his head as if scenting blood.

The woman nodded once. “That’s a good way of putting it.” She mused.

Naruto stared at her for a minute, lips pressed together. What was Naruto doing? Sakura tried to pick up some clues from her team mate's body language but nothing was forthcoming.

"Sixty-four years ago," Naruto spoke sharply and suddenly. "Miyake Asari. Five million bounty. Kumo still wants you for defecting, I think."

Sakura felt her jaw drop. _How_? Had he memorised every single bingo book ever printed? From what information had he drawn that conclusion? Her confidence that her name could be known? Her age? The barest hint of her skillset?

The woman's face unravelled in surprise using folds that seemed hardly used. It offered Sakura a raw glimpse into honest shock and blooming warmth. "It warms an old woman's heart that she is still remembered in some circles." Her eyes were nearly shut in pleasure and her smile had far more warmth in it than before.

Naruto seemed to notice her staring and coughed in embarrassment, turning away. Sasuke grasped him firmly by the shoulder, shaking him once in a deliberate slow-motion that conveyed pride.

"Come with me," Asari commanded. "I will lead you to my son. And then you will stay with me for the duration of your mission. No arguments, sensei." She flicked at Obito who just smiled and shrugged.

It would be an insult to protest, Sakura realised. Which fool would dare prick a Jonin’s pride?

…..##################################################...

_Saint’s Rank, Tanzaku Gai, Fire Country:_

Anyone who might have given them trouble faced three great walls.

One- each of the Konoha nin wore their headbands. Most of the people who had stepped forward to protest their presence in clear Yakuza territory had fallen silent, lips white at the Konoha symbol before slinking back into the background. Two- Obito was there. Even if genin could be disrespected in private, there was a Jonin present. Konoha’s Jonin sensei’s protectiveness over their genin was _legendary._ Enough of the Yakuza knew horror stories about the forest shadows to avoid angering one. Three- Miyake Asari was leading them. Their path melted open before them, people slipping into side streets and respectfully giving way.

The Banchou had heard of their arrival and sent someone to guide them, but upon seeing the old woman, their guide had just smiled, welcomed them, and vanished. She led them to the side door of a casino, through the back where the broken machines were being repaired and down through a door to the underground complex where the Banchou had set up operations for the meantime.

Sakura was not prepared for the meeting in question.

What a wild intensity.

Even without the members in the complex deferring to his judgement, Sakura thought that she could have picked him out instantly. The air around the Banchou of Tanzaku Gai was _heavy_. When his eyes slid to the newcomers and over the genin, Sakura felt a queer hair raising pressure like her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth. When those steely eyes landed on Obito, the man smirked, pushed away from the map and swung his legs up on the table, clearly anticipating something.

Obito didn't even blink an eye when greeting the man, still carrying bags of shopping like a domestic civilian. “Yo! It’s been a while.” He offered the smirking Banchou a victory sign. “Love the decorating. Which fool did you have to pay to fix your mess for you?”

"Uchiha." The Banchou smiled -bared his teeth but it was close enough- and the lack of a violent rage diminished the sudden, sharp tension to manageable levels. “So that’s why you were so slow. They saddled you with a team eventually.”

“Meet my brats!” Obito set down the bags on the table, the plastic crinkling over the drawn map. The Banchou snapped his fingers at someone standing nearby and they jolted into action, taking the shopping from the Jonin, and pulling up chairs for the team. He cheerfully dragged each of them forward in turn, “This one’s Sasuke. Doesn’t he look like me? Isn’t he cute?” With a cheek pinch, the stunned silent Sasuke was released. Naruto, getting the idea of how their introductions were going to go, danced out of the way, “The blond’s Naruto.” Obito said, “I think he’s shy.” Sakura hid her face in her hands, too caught off guard by professional confusion and stark embarrassment. “The girl’s Sakura.” His hand rested on her head. “My most sensible.”

The Banchou of Tanzaku Gai peered at them and dismissed them just as quickly, attention flickering back to Obito. Miyake Asari stomped into the picture, snapping at the suddenly alarmed personnel until the background was a flurry of activity to get the place up to her standards. Amid the chaos, Sakura’s stomach clenched as her mind fooled herself into believing she knew a face or two.

“Whatever. Cute, shy and sensible, are you describing a dating profile? You’re not inspiring much confidence in me.” The man drawled; eyes hooded, motioning for a spectacled man to bring him a ledger. “ _Whatever._ Who cares. Did you come from the north-east?” Throughout the introduction, Sakura knew that she, Naruto and Sasuke were in total agreement- Obito had far too much fun at their expense. Was it too much to let them know that Obito and the Banchou were on familiar terms beforehand? "Mother.” The Banchou changed track suddenly when she targeted a newcomer, “I need that one relatively sane and composed. If you're bored, you can-"

"Brat." Asari snapped but without heat. "Who are you to tell me what to do? You expect me to see this inadequacy and not speak up?” She hit the new woman on the ankle with her cane and the woman’s face went white. “You weren’t given the task associated with that folder.” The woman swivelled her cane. “I know. I was there. Just because you’re mildly more useful than the rest doesn’t mean that you can take other people’s credit.” Pale, the woman opened her mouth but a quick glance at the Banchou betrayed her. Miyake Asari slammed her cane into the woman’s toes. “Talk to me, instead.” She said mildly. “I’m much prettier. Go back and get the other one. If she’s messed up, you don’t take the fall and if she’s done good work, you don’t take the credit.”

The woman fled. Asari sighed, then gained momentum, whirling upon her son. “If you had bothered to ask, you lay-about child, you would know that I have dinner to prepare and four extra futons to find. Which animal raised you when I wasn’t looking?"

"Yes, mother." The Banchou rolled his eyes at Obito and clicked his fingers at the genin to sit. "Take whatever you need on me. Shoo now, mother. I'm busy." The spectacled man behind him _hissed_ in anticipation of something painful. The room as a whole collectively held their breath, all movement stilling for a brief second. Asari sniffed in haughty pride.

“You’re a lovely boy for offering to help me when no one else would.” She thanked Obito, who wouldn’t dream of putting her in his debt for something so trivial. Numerous offers of help came from the side, stilted and unsure as if the people weren’t sure whether that barb was meant to be directed at the people who had stood there dumbly. “There’s so much to do and so little time- Help that man with the bags, you idiot.” She snapped at a lanky man who snapped into action to support his swaying colleague. "As you're taking my willing helper away from me, I'm taking a few of your men to help your poor invalid mother."

Sakura had to fight to keep her jaw still at the brazen lie. The Banchou ignored her expertly. "Uchiha. North-east?" He asked, rising to perch on the edge of the table. The man filtered through the ledger and pulled out various sheets of paper.

“Yes.” Obito confirmed, “Straight from the village. We saw nothing.”

“Hm.” The Banchou hummed, “The South would have been more useful. Do you know what’s going on?”

"I do." Obito drawled, pulling up a chair. "Perks of reading the mission assignment. They don't though."

The Banchou nodded and when he faced the genin, he slapped down the sheets he had been collecting on the table. "Several children have been abducted." He said it so casually that it took a few seconds for it to register. Sakura's mind came screaming to the fact that the Tanzaku Gai Yakuza might be headed by a lunatic.

"I want you to go and talk to people and pretend to do whatever the official investigation procedure is, while we go and deal with the problem." He waved a hand airily while Sasuke picked up one of the sheets.

“This…” He furrowed his eyebrows, “Family of the victim? Suspect?”

“What?” The Banchou asked, startled at the genin’s interjection. “No. Those are the people I want you to make think that I think they’re involved in this. I’ll get some cooperation out of them for weeks if they’re cowed into behaving. Even if they’re not involved in this, they’re involved in other rings and they don’t want me investigating.”

Naruto stared and snatched up one of the papers, scanning it incredulously. Sakura was too busy kicking herself. The fact that the shinobi recruited out of these ranks had blinded her to the fact that the leadership would be the ones Konoha _didn’t_ want. Why leave an asset elsewhere? This man who could look at a child’s abduction and see an opportunity for control…what kind of man was he.

The Banchou finished and crossed his arms over his chest. "Is that acceptable?" His eyes were pitiless. "I don't tolerate independent work on my turf.” After a pause, “And anything involving children." The man said as if it were a last-minute thought. Perhaps he realised he was talking to a bunch of children. Sakura felt a hysterical laugh bubble in her throat. "You all get to pretend to care about this and frighten some pieces of shit. I think it’s really quite easy." He shrugged at Obito, "Nothing _too_ above your skill level."

Obito's teeth flashed. "Oh, I wouldn't say that." He leant back comfortably. "You might jinx the operation."

Well, that was more ominous than she would like.

"Go on," Obito ordered in their direction, lazily waving a hand. "I know you want to."

Naruto flung what he was reading down. “People have been _kidnapped,_ and you’re not going to give us their details? We need to know who was taken and where from-” he glanced at Sasuke, clearly struggling to understand this approach, “A _list!_ With descriptions would help.”

"Timings," Sasuke interjected, arms crossed over his chest.

“Suspects!” Naruto windmilled.

“Witnesses wouldn’t hurt.” Sasuke shrugged.

“Are we just ignoring the local police force?” Sakura asked, bewildered that no one had mentioned the legal force who couldn’t just sit still when children were kidnapped in their districts. The Yakuza weren’t the first port of call for retaliation for this.

Naruto snapped his fingers and pointed at her, backing up her point without words. “There’s been no ransom notes? When did it all start? What was the new variable in the town when it started?”

Sasuke started, “What links-”

The Banchou whistled, mildly displeased at being harassed by a pair of pre-teen brats. "Credit where it’s due, Uchiha, you _have_ taught them to bark on command." The only sign of his irritation was the increased tempo of his nail tapping against the wood. Sasuke's grip in his lap went white and Naruto's smile became ever so frozen. It was clear that none of them appreciated that comment, the words touching a raw nerve in both. The man pushed himself off the table, lazy and careless. “If you want the information, then take it.” The Banchou said simply. “But it’s not what I hired you to do. Don’t lose sight of that.”

“You didn’t need to hire us at all,” Sakura said, the words spilling out before she could stop it. She clapped her hands over her mouth as the Banchou’s sharp gaze landed on her, and _fully_ on her like a hawk spotting prey, before smiling in disdain and electing to ignore the outburst.

“Cute, shy and sensible.” The man repeated as if disbelieving the very words he was saying. “Uchiha, I’m done hosting you for now. Go do your job or go bother mother. Your grin is too irritating.”

“What if I want the information?” Obito arched an eyebrow, leaning back in his chair as if the man had invited him to drinks instead of kicking him out. Before he could finish his sentence, the second in command straightened his glasses and passed four copies of a thick file to the Jonin-Sensei.

Obito blinked at it before taking it. “You had it ready already?” He murmured, flicking through the file. "You're pretty reliable."

"It's my job, Jonin-san." The man inclined his head, a pleased flash scooting over his face.

“This goes beyond your job,” Obito remarked, snapping the file shut. His smile was innocent. “Do you put this much effort into everything you do?”

“If I care about it.”

Obito grinned, “Oh? Do you care about my team? That’s quite flattering to hear. I’ve been ignoring you and it was like this- do forgive me, that was quite rude of me.”

“Jonin-san.” The man half-smiled, “I can’t have you apologise to me; I can’t bear the weight.”

"Call me Obito." Their sensei grinned. "S-

"Stop flirting with my men and get on with it, Uchiha." The Banchou leapt off the desk, tone utterly flat. His vice laughed under his breath, stepping back to listen to a woman whispering in his ear. The pair walked off, with the man throwing a friendly wave behind him.

"A man can't be nice without being thought of as flirty?" Obito blinked owlishly at the Banchou who just laughed at him.

"I watched you at the Academy for five years, Uchiha." The man grinned. "I know full well what you're like. Shoo, ninja boy. Go bother my mother and take her off my hands for a day or two."

….#######################################################...

_Redhelm Ronin, Saint’s Rank, Tanzaku Gai:_

The casino below which the Banchou had made his temporary headquarters was classier than Sakura had expected. The tables were dark wood and lacquer, ornate brass lamps in the shape of dragons hanging from the ceiling breathing smoky incense. Neat games were set up in each room overseen by sharply dressed dealers.

Obito said something in a low undertone to a smiling waitress in a themed kimono and she led them to a small, private booth at once with a quick glance at their headbands. The lighting was dim to better suit the atmosphere and Sakura saw why Obito preferred to speak here, surrounded by the noise of gambling and drinking, than outside where they could be overheard more easily. Someone brought them a tray of steaming tea in ceramic cups.

“What do you think?” The man asked once all of them had squeezed inside. He tapped the sliding door and the ink on his arms shivered once before flowing onto the deceptively thick parchment in thick spirals and drawn characters. He rested his chin on his now bare wrist and just watched as the trio went through the offered files.

"This is quite… an impressive list," Sakura muttered, scanning through a list of all the children taken. Not all of them had photos clipped to their profiles.

"On the other hand, if we disregard all the people that he’s sure are not culprits." Sasuke held up a near blank piece of paper. "The list of suspects is very short."

"The list of witnesses is non-existent." Naruto declared from the side, ankle hooked over his knee, and for the first time in a while, there was a sense of cohesion as a team.

"They're not a suspect, Sasuke." Obito poked the boy in the forehead, "Miyake is sure they are the culprit; _that_ is a warning to stay away from them. The Banchou is on the hunt personally and he doesn't want them tipped off."

Naruto tossed the sheets onto the table. “What?” He said flatly. “We’re just here to lend legitimacy to his operation? Our C-rank is to act as a _decoration?_ ”

Sakura almost laughed at the outrage in the blond’s voice.

Sasuke flicked Naruto on the ear. “Silly.” He said but without heat. “Can’t you see? We’re here to learn how to get things done while pretending to be a decoration.” He pinned Obito with an even stare, “Isn’t that right?”

At their sensei’s slanted smirk, Sasuke continued, pulling one of the files closer to him and gesturing to one of the pages. “What do we need to do for the cover of an investigation- Obito, did you pick up the forms?”

“How dare you doubt me.” Obito pulled a pile of papers from his sleeve. “Welcome to the bureaucratic realm. All of these need to be filled in and signed. Being the excellent sensei that I am, I went ahead and signed everything ahead of time.”

“Excellent.” Sasuke examined one of the blank forms, “I assume we’re taking point? To give us practical experience without supervision? It’s not like we’re handling the urgent parts.”

Sakura stared. "What? I understand collecting information about the children, but do we make up the suspects we investigate? The list the Banchou gave us?"

Obito grinned at her in answer.

Naruto cut in. "Forget who we pretend is responsible. Who is _actually_ responsible and why are they still alive? Why is this farce even necessary?”

“Gato,” Sasuke answered. Electricity sparked in the back of her memory, the day’s newspapers floating behind her eyes as she concentrated. Gato? The mogul Gato?

Naruto cocked his head, the silent question obvious.

"How can you know the contents of a bingo book from sixty-four years ago and not who Gato is?" She asked incredulously and Sasuke sent her a warning look, not appreciating her tone.

Naruto smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. "There are Uzumakis in the bingo books." He spoke pleasantly. "Going back about a hundred years. Tell me, is Gato a shinobi?"

"No," Sakura admitted.

"Does he do anything that remotely affects us in any way?"

"…No."

"Were we taught about him in the academy?"

Her silence was enough of an answer.

"Well then, why would I know him?" Naruto hissed, blue eyes uncharacteristically sharp, before losing steam and running a hand over his forehead.

Guilt gnawed at Sakura's stomach. She had completely forgotten; Naruto was an orphan and the only link he had was his last name. It was no wonder that he had traced through dozens of bingo books just for the confirmation his family wasn't something that he had made up and that they had been real people. The books were the only way the information starved boy could get any manner of peace.

"You want to enlighten them, Sakura?" Obito asked lightly after an awkward silence.

"Businessman. Very rich and powerful." She answered curtly. "Owns a company that works in most of the major nations."

"What does he hawk?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

Sakura thought for a second. "Wood. The old hard kind used for boats and houses. That's why his foothold in Konoha isn't that big, our forests are enough to supply us and we don't need boats."

Her father, bless him, when he had still been around, had taken to sitting her on his knee and talking to her as he worked. Sakura had picked up a lot about business and corporations by the time she could tie her shoes and hit a target with a weighted kunai.

"What on earth can a businessman want with children?" Naruto narrowed his eyes at the paper.

Sasuke arched the other eyebrow. "Unpaid child labour is the cheapest way for corrupt businessmen to make a profit."

"From the Banchou of Tanzaku Gai's prowling grounds?" Sakura didn't need to do anything to point out how stupid that was. “From a foreign country? His foothold in Fire is flimsy, it doesn’t make any sense.”

"The fact Tanzaku Gai even has a Banchou isn't common knowledge, you realise?" Obito interjected. "Civilians aren't happy about living with Yakuza when there's a shinobi village nearby, we get so many requests to 'clear' them out. We have to put on so many shows every few years to stamp out criminal behaviour. The Banchou uses them as an opportunity to weed out the troublemakers. If news got out that they were unified behind one leader instead of being in little rabbles, there really would be trouble."

“Hn. Okay.” Sasuke drummed his fingers on the table. “The way I see it, there are two major aspects to this. The pretend investigation and the research into Gato. The first shouldn’t be too difficult, it’s bookwork, talking to civilians and following a list. The second is anyone’s game.”

"If Sakura goes and does the main pretence part, we're free to sneak around and find out more about Gato." Naruto pointed between him and Sasuke. "Sorry Sakura, but you have far more experience with talking to civilians, we’d just get in your way."

The dark-haired boy nodded slowly, “Yes, that seems like a good split of skills. If I were you, I would hold off on the Banchou’s list until all three of us are available. It’s not something I’m too comfortable letting one person do alone. You _are_ the least visibly threatening and there’s strength in a team.”

"As long as the mission parameters get fulfilled, I’ll let the three of you decide your route." Obito finally stopped ignoring the tea, "What a troublesome lot, I’ll step in if something goes wrong so don’t worry."

"You." Naruto pointed. "Obito-Nii…are you just planning to supervise again for as long as you can get away with it?" The flat look the dark-eyed man shot the blond was answer enough.

Sakura's smile was brittle, nails biting into her thighs. She should have expected this but she hadn’t and she didn’t know _why._ Was she reading too much into the reasons given? Being separated from the team and being told to work alone was a bitter taste in the back of her mouth, but the worst part was that she understood why. Unwilling to challenge the first decision without a justifiable reason on their first proper mission, Sakura inclined her head.

Obito’s gaze remained on her for a long time afterwards.

"I bet I’ll find out more than you." Sasuke challenged Naruto, a gleam shining in his eyes. Naruto's face came alive in defiance. Both of them were gone in the next second, the ink on the doors barely receding in time, the sliding door slamming open, letting in the view of a man being firmly escorted out, cards fluttering from a ripped compartment in his sleeve.

The boys’ headbands fluttered into Obito's waiting hand.

Sakura sighed and turned to the man who quirked a questioning glance at her.

"Where do we meet up?" She asked wearily. "I mean after we're done."

His gaze shifted, something almost fond softening the edge of his stare. "It's nice to know one of my descriptions was spot on." He mused, ruffling her hair. The man pulled a pen from a pocket and scrawled a rough map on the back of her hand. He smiled at her again and Sakura felt the instinctive answering smile twist her mouth.

“Regarding what Miyake wants you to do.” The man said before she had the chance to leave. “You don’t have to intimidate anybody purposefully. Don’t reinvent the wheel, you are a shinobi and they know it. Incorruptible competence is the bane to such men- any problem they can’t bribe or murder to remove from their path, they can’t deal with it at all.”

…###############################################...

_Saint’s Rank, Tanzaku Gai, Fire Country:_

No-one stopped her as she marched back into the Banchou’s headquarters, clipboard in tow. The spectacled second in command spotted her almost immediately, this side of the room stilling at the unexpected intrusion and wandered over. “Is there a problem, kunoichi?”

The Banchou, further back, now lounging on a couch, a wire piece looping around his ear to his mouth, shot her a curious look but didn’t interrupt his call to investigate.

She waved the clipboard in the man’s face, far too quickly for him to see what it said. “When children are being kidnapped, it makes sense to talk to the remaining children to see if they saw anything weird. There’s a couple down here. I want to talk to them.”

“If that’s what you think is best.” The vice agreed easily, lighting a cigarette, far milder than his boss. “Sensible.” She stared at him for a second to determine if he was mocking her or not, but his pleasant expression was unreadable.

Her excuse sorted; Sakura wandered into the room. Pairs of eyes watched her wherever she went. But her hunt paid off- she _knew_ she hadn’t hallucinated.

“Fumio-senpai.” She slid into the spare seat by the teen fiddling with the radio. “Long time no see. Have you been well?”

The teen lifted his eyes from the complicated mess of interlocking wires and dials, and something tightened around his mouth. “Haruno.” He sighed, “So, you did notice.” The boy pushed his work away, swivelling to face her properly. “I haven’t seen anything. Was there something else you wanted?”

“Why are you _here_?” Sakura asked, hushed, leaning forward, elbows on knees. “We lost contact with you after your graduation-”

“Get to the point.” Fumio interrupted, far too chilly for someone she had run to for advice numerous times. “You’re not an idiot. It’s evident that I failed the second genin test. Are you asking why I gave up trying again or why I never told any of you?”

Sakura struggled for words, casting her eyes to the floor. Fumio Akira had graduated three years before her as one of the top students in his division. Sakura and he had grown up in the same neighbourhood, had attended the same birthday parties and when the news had come of his disappearance, she had been shaken. The boy who had dedicated so much effort into becoming a shinobi…to see him working for the Yakuza, it was a bad shock to her system.

“What happened?” She asked, instead of answering.

“It was a test of teamwork.” The teen said, deceptively lightly. “As someone far too used to clawing my way to the top, teamwork doesn’t come very naturally to me. They told me that I could try again the next year. I did. It was a test of judgement. I worked as a team and they told me that it should have been clear to save the objective over the team. I didn’t want to try again.”

“So you came here?”

He shrugged. “I was too old to start training for another trade. You don’t get the grant after you fail twice. I was good at what I had learnt, and there’s enough money in this line to make sure grandmother can keep the house.”

“We would have helped,” Sakura whispered, stunned. “Mother wouldn’t have let it become a choice between a profession and your home.”

“I don’t need Auntie’s charity,” Fumio said but with a helpless air. “I chose this.”

“Will you re-join if they offer you a spot?”

He considered her for a long moment. “Probably not. They work in very different ways and I think I’d have trouble adjusting. They probably wouldn’t take kindly to me either.” The teen smiled suddenly, a brittle thing but still genuine beneath the irony. “I didn’t say congratulations, did I? You broke the ceiling.”

“A fluke.” She admitted. “I don’t know what I would have done if I had failed.”

“It was too hard for me to go back to what I had left behind,” Fumio said and there was a queer weight to his words. “I’m good at violence, Sakura, and that hasn’t changed. I _can’t_ go back now. I imagine you could join any civ school and they would take you because of your grades. Auntie would never let your future be derailed after one failure. Who else made it from your batch?”

She shook her head and he sighed, heavier, slumping in his seat.

“Himiko and Momo made it in mine.” He pulled his ankle over his knee. Pain lanced through his face. “I don’t know what happened to the others. Don’t tell them.”

“I won’t.” She promised, feeling like she was about to cry.

He noticed. “Hey.” Fumio tapped her jaw with a knuckle. “Cry-baby. It’s okay. This is your achievement. You don’t need to hold yourself back by worrying about the rest of us. We can handle ourselves.”

Sakura wanted to blurt to him that he had probably been destined to fail no matter what he did, but the words wouldn’t pass her lips. It was one thing to realise it in Konoha, but looking at the consequence of that cold, pre-calculated decision was another thing. What had he worked so hard for if this outcome was inevitable?

A hand landed lightly on her shoulder, the vice behind her. “Did you get what you need?” And this time, Sakura heard the implicit order for her to _leave-_ there were too many people here with too fragile a past for her to blunder in with her headband.

“Sakura-” Fumio was saying but she jumped to her feet, blinking back tears.

“Yeah. I got everything that I wanted.” She said to the vice, who had retreated his hand immediately. “It was good seeing you again, senpai. I won’t interrupt you anymore.” Guilt feasted on her insides.

“Taichou,” She heard Fumio _snarl_ as she left, “Sakura!-”

The casino music cut off anything else he might have said, the girl moving far too quickly for him to catch.

………..############################################................

_Fifth Intersection, Tanzaku Gai, Fire Country:_

Sakura didn’t think it a good idea for her to put the fear of god in anyone right now. Her stomach felt hot and full, her skin feverish- the girl mildly drunk on casino incense and belly churning guilt. She sat on the rim of a fountain, the spray doing nothing to banish her state of mind. People passed by her at the busy junction, casting curious glances in her direction.

With a sigh, she pulled the soggy file to her and flipped through to the parts where the ink hadn’t bled through and tried to make sense of the address. She might as well start with talking to the families. Acid _burned_ at the back of her throat. For the first time, Sakura was glad that she was alone.

The first house was more of a shack, clumped among others, close to the underbelly of a bridge. The man who answered the door seemed to know what she had come for almost immediately, calling for someone else. They offered her tea which she didn’t have the heart to take, and soon, the story spilt out of the poor mother.

“Yes, of course, we’re doing something.” She said quietly, feeling like a fraud. “It’s a serious matter and it will be treated as such.”

"I bet those damn thugs did it. The damn Yakuza in their dens of filth." The woman whispered, broken. "My poor Niseki."

Sakura shot her a look. After the unveiling of Asari as an ex ninja, she had been paranoid in checking if any of the civilians she was talking to had similar backgrounds. In a fake investigation, the last thing she wanted was to act out of her league and have it called upon. She could say with relative surety that this woman had no kunoichi background whatsoever.

"Let's not jump to conclusions." She told the woman, standing to leave, her form filled to the brim with notes. "It’ll blind you to the truth."

Then, there were the families who refused to believe that she was a shinobi.

Sakura found the father in a bar after the little girl at the house pointed her in its direction.

"You can't be a ninja." The man had too much to drink already and it showed, his eyes unable to focus on her face and drifting back to her bright hair. "The local gangs look more dangerous than you and Kami knows that the shinobi are made of a tougher stock than any yakuza."

Sakura felt her neutral expression peel back, exposing teeth. "Tell me." She asked pleasantly. "Would you be warier of a gang member or me, if I took my headband off?"

"The other one, of course." The man narrowed his eyes, searching for the trick question.

"That's rather the point." Sakura hissed through her teeth and the man's eyes went very wide.

"Oh."

“Go home.” She told him wearily. “You have a daughter waiting for you to come back. You lost one child, don’t allow them to take both.”

He must have heard it a hundred times from others, but Sakura thought that he had listened to her because of the headband. She watched him hurry home after answering her questions, and the bartender waved off her money when she tried to pay for her juice.

It was difficult to stay detached from the situation in the face of raw helplessness. Sakura stopped fighting the instinct to stay strictly professional after the third family member burst into tears. It was a mark of how affected the grandfather really was when the man latched onto her arm and refused to let her go as his shoulders shook. Not even the boldest yakuza had dared to lay a hand on her.

"You can find my Ruriko?!"

"We’re going to try." She told him quietly.

"I don't know what's happened to her. She must be so scared!" And the old man burst into loud noisy tears, so desperately grateful for the slightest chance his granddaughter could be found.

Better at dealing with civilians? Sakura thought. Sasuke and Naruto didn’t know how to deal with _people._ How dare they leave her to take this on alone. She patted the man on the back until he regained his composure.

After going through half of the list, Sakura grew tired of emotionally exhausting herself and decided to kick her masochistic streak. Had the others taken advantage of her talking to the families to investigate? How close had they passed by each other and she hadn’t noticed? A low voice interrupted her self-imposed break from hysterical civilians. "Well. That symbol bodes trouble for some people."

Sakura's head shot up. The sun shone into her eyes, blinding her, but when it cleared, an attractive dark-haired man stood there, hands in pockets, smiling, and gestured to her headband almost curiously. "What brings a kunoichi of the Leaf here?" The only colour on his outfit came from his blue ring, the man clad in a pale shirt and a dark business jacket, a tie missing from around his throat.

Her eyes flicked to the base of his fingers- clear, unmarked. Some part of her relaxed. She could deal with curious questions.

"The children being abducted." She answered. "Can you tell me anything?"

"Oh, that awful business." The man hummed. "I can but I'm hungry. I'll tell you over some food, deal?" As if perfectly timed, Sakura's stomach let out a growl. She had underestimated how much of a toll the day had been on her. The man's smile widened and he pointed to a nice little cafe at the side of the street.

"My treat, you're obviously overworking yourself."

"No thanks, I'll pay for myself." Sakura leapt down from the plinth and brushed herself off. It might have been an innocent offer but she didn’t like being in a stranger’s debt.

"Suit yourself." The man shrugged. He was taller than she had thought, made the more evident when she had to look up to meet his gaze instead of down. "I'm Momochi Zabuza." He offered her a thin-mouthed smile; the edge of a sharp tooth visible in his grin.

"Saki." Seeing that he didn’t offer his hand, she didn’t offer hers. Some civilians were funny about touching bloodied hands. She was only a genin but she was a shinobi and it might be all the same in their heads- Sakura didn’t mind. She was trying to avoid the habit of shaking hands whenever she met someone new, putting her vulnerable hands in someone else’s grip was a frightening thought when hidden shinobi were involved.

She hadn’t been too concerned about it before since she hadn’t had to introduce herself but rule number one of dealing with civilians was that they never gave their real names out. Just so it couldn't be traced back to them.

The café had little tables outside with blue umbrellas. The waitress saw her headband and jumped the queue to serve them first which embarrassed Sakura horribly. It took a lot of reassurances that they didn’t mind waiting their turn to order.

“Do you get that often?” Momochi asked her, amused, as the woman took the remaining orders at triple the speed to get to them as quickly as possible. “Finding you was very convenient.”

“First time.” Sakura’s cheeks were still hot.

He chuckled. When it was their turn, Sakura was very sure that the woman undercharged them. At her face, the man leant down and whispered a more reasonable price. She handed him the correct amount and he tossed it in the cash register when the woman was too busy telling Sakura about their selection of teas.

“Just remove it next time.” He suggested, jabbing a thumb at the headband as they took seats outside the dainty shop. She had been given his food as well as hers but he didn’t seem annoyed at being side-lined in favour of a tiny pre-teen with obnoxious hair. Most men would balk at being ignored in favour of a young girl, but there was something very steady about the man. Under the skin layer of affability, she got the distinct impression of an unshakeable foundation.

As if obeying the same unsaid signal, their pleasant polite conversation melted away when they took their seats. Sakura kept a careful eye on the man as he fiddled with unwrapping his wrap.

"It's good that Konoha is interfering. This needs to be stopped before it goes too far." Momochi spoke quietly at last and the stark grim note in his voice leapt out at her. He took a bite and chewed. "Who's your main suspect?" The flash in his eyes could have been any of relief, curiosity or outrage and Sakura wasn’t able to tell.

"I can't give that out." She told him.

"Of course." He nodded as if that was only to be expected. The man reached into his pocket and slid something across the table. Her breath caught in her throat when she went to read the card.

_Gato industries. Law Sector. Tanzaku Gai._

The man worked for Gato? She didn’t have time to feel the relief that she hadn't told him who their main suspect was before the muted triumph hit. Fighting to squash the rising feelings, she placed the card down, not letting her reaction show. If she could get some information from him then she could prove to the others that she deserved to be on their team. He _had_ to have done this on purpose- she could do this; he really might have some useful information!

"I am under the indirect employ of Gato." Momochi watched her reaction carefully. "And I find myself in a slight…muddle."

"How so?"

"I am paid well. My work is interesting, I have no complaints on that section." The man spread his hands. "But…whatever the company does reflects upon the employees as a whole. Lawyers need a creditable reputation; do you see where I am going with this?"

Sakura's neck prickled with excitement. If this led where she thought it led…

"Then, leave." She passed the card back. The man’s smile was so slight that it might not even have been there. "Is the money worth the hit to your reputation? It really has nothing to do with me."

"But there is a question of morals to consider." Momochi idly tore a strip from his wrap. "My sense of justice is strong, Saki-san. How can I just leave and do nothing?" His eyes pierced Sakura to the bone. "And I think in this case, your and my sense of justice coincide."

Sakura's throat felt very dry with a rising delight. She had an employee of Gato willing to give her information! Or he could be a spy sent by the company to fish for information and to take back whatever he found to Gato; her mind whispered darkly.

"It was very lucky that I caught you." Momochi mused thoughtfully.

"What can you tell me?" Sakura asked. The man smiled strangely and looked up at the sky, placing his drink down.

"I assume you’ve done your research but let me contribute. All the kids have been taken without leaving a trace, you know that, right? Without a fuss. Without a trace. Without a single witness. Does that sound familiar?"

"…There are more shinobi in the area," Sakura whispered, a weight settling over her heart. Why were the townsfolk so deferential to her? Was that just a reaction to her as a Konoha nin, or a frightened defence to keep her from terrorizing her as the others had done?

Momochi nodded grimly, mouth curving into a humourless smile. "Your headband.” He warned, “You should not wear it so openly. Forgive me, but you’re quite young. While you may be formidable for your age group, Gato has a supply of fully trained brutish missing-nin that he draws upon for his dirty work. Saki-san might find herself in a lot of trouble if she is not careful.”

"Thank you for telling me," Sakura whispered, hands clenching tightly, heart hammering in her chest. She needed to tell Obito as soon as possible. Were Yakuza a match for shinobi? The near-constant eyes on her back turned to skewers on her feverish skin, paranoia rearing its pretty head.

"Hey!"

Naruto tore up to their table, having the good sense to not call her name out in public. Sakura couldn’t bring herself to care about that dodged kunai, too busy working through the consequences of the fact that _more_ nin were in the area. Foreign nin acting upon Konoha territory? This would end in a bloodbath. Momochi’s eye flicked to the approaching Naruto and something like shock widened his eye.

"He's your teammate?" His head snapped back to Sakura; she winced and nodded knowing that the damage was done.

"Do you know where to find Obi-Nii?" Naruto skidded to a halt in a long train of ripped earth and dust. Waving a hand over his shoulder, he continued. "I really should have asked before leaving but Sasuke needed his ego deflating."

"It seems that you are needed." Momochi rose smoothly to his feet. She didn’t miss how Naruto cut in front of her as a partial shield. "Keep that." The man nodded at the business card, directing a smile at the ground. "Contact me if you need to." A shark-like grin flitted across his face and Sakura thought that she saw the type of ruthless man he was. With a final nod at both genin, the man wandered away, raising a friendly hand to the nervous café owner as a thank you for the meal.

The second he was out of earshot, Naruto turned to her, eyes incredulously wide. "Who was that?" He breathed. “You can’t just have lunch with random people, that’s so dangerous, Sakura-chan. Did you check your drink?” Sakura snatched up the card and faced Naruto.

"I'll tell you at the house when we all pitch in." Her decisive tone cut Naruto’s protest short, and he glanced at her, obviously displeased but dropped the subject at her insistence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My notes for this chapter:  
> Obito: *has an actual mess on his hands*  
> Obito: Let's have a NICE SAFE C-Rank   
> Rin: You suck  
> Team 7: You suck but a bit less  
> Momochi Zabuza: Please, allow me to introduce myself


	4. The Spider and the Fly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sakura gets introduced to two different ways of doing things. Sasuke needs more human contact. Naruto would like a pretty candle. Obito mentally apologises to every mentor he ever had for being an unapologetic brat. The mission continues.

_Miyake Asari’s Residence, Downtown, Tanzaku Gai:_

Sasuke was waiting for them, half-hidden in the deep shadows of the staircase. Sakura got the shock of her life when she turned to take her shoes off at the matriarch’s house and he appeared in her vision like some ghost from his near-invisible seat on the stairs. At Naruto’s incredulity that he had returned first, the boy pushed himself off the wall, a smirk blooming as he leant forward to lean elbows on knees, eyebrow arched as if asking them what took so long.

“You cheated!” Naruto protested.

“Such a sore loser.” Sasuke clicked his tongue.

At the sight of them conveniently ignoring the strangest part of this encounter- “Why are you sitting in the dark?”

The boy jerked his head towards the adjoining room. Voices faintly carried. “You’ll find out.” Disgruntlement echoed in his tone. Then he caught sight of the forms she carried and faint curiosity replaced it. “Can I see? I overheard part of your conversation in one residence and it sounded important, but I need to know the full thing.”

Ah, she had been right. They had been far closer than she had realised. The reason for Sasuke’s wilful exile came evident as Asari, clad in a hideous apron, came bustling out of the adjoining room and the light in Sasuke's eyes turned panicked. The boy, in the first show of childishness she had seen, hid his face behind Sakura’s forms and pretended that if he couldn’t see her, she couldn’t see him.

"The shoe rack is behind that sliding panel." The old woman wheezed, electing to ignore Sasuke much to his great relief. "Your sensei is in the kitchen. He's such an excellent boy compared to my idiotic son." Muttering darkly under her breath, Asari moved off in creaky shuffles which hid a speed like a striking snake.

"Scared of an old woman?" Naruto hissed under his breath as he passed Sasuke. "That's low, even for you."

"You have _not_ been here, stuck between her and her son." Sasuke hissed back.

"The Banchou's here?" She tuned into the conversation at that intriguing piece of news. Why had he left his base? How did the leader of the underworld of Tanzaku Gai have the spare time to babysit some hired genin?

"The way he says it, Obito got bored. Turns out supervising is great in theory but really dull in practice." Sasuke shrugged. "He waltzed into the headquarters and waltzed back out with the Banchou to catch up."

"Ah, kiddies!" Obito's voice floated over, restrained with bright, sharp laughter. "In, in!"

Naruto glanced at Sasuke who was perusing Sakura’s writing with a single-minded intensity and then at Sakura, who was waiting for the return of her forms and lost in thought, shook his head and went on ahead.

“We could do this in there.” She pointed out.

“I want to sort out my hypothesis before we present them.” He replied absent-mindedly. “Go ahead, if you like.”

Shaking her head, she perched on the bottom stair, enjoying the little peace in the dark and quiet. Naruto’s voice intermingled with Sensei’s from the kitchen but the words couldn’t be distinguished.

“These are good notes. You spent a lot of time on this.” He remarked suddenly. “You didn’t need to.”

“Because it’s a fake investigation?” Sakura asked dryly. “Because whatever the Banchou is doing will override any sanctioned action resulting from this pretence?”

This time, the weight of the boy’s gaze was almost thoughtful. “If you want to be blunt about it.”

“I do.” Sakura decided on the fly. “I do want to be blunt. Sasuke, fake or not, no one had asked the families anything, that was clear. Do we just say that everything that they say is not important because they weren’t clear witnesses? Doing a half-assed job because a criminal is breaking the law to get even with a kidnapper is about as right as painting your face with mercury and saying that _it’s fine, looks fade with time anyway._ ”

On second thought, she could have chosen a clearer example but he seemed to get her point. He glanced at her. “A criminal? Was that the thought running through your mind when you returned to his headquarters- to ask for help from a criminal?”

“You’re wr- You weren’t around at that point.” She hid her shock as best as she could but her best wasn’t good enough. Sasuke’s other eyebrow arched at the near implication that she had meant to keep it from them.

“Ah. That’s how it was.” He said, and Sakura hated the fact that his voice didn’t change from his casual civility. An awkward silence fell, Sakura not caring to explain herself like a chastised child and Sasuke not caring to ask immediately.

“You were watching?” She asked quietly.

He sighed, “Obviously. Just until you got into the swing of things.”

“ _Why?”_ She asked incredulously, “It was my job, why were you spying on me?” Had he not trusted her to complete the simplest task successfully?

“Call it what you want, but I was looking out for a lone team-mate in a foreign city.” He said, not quite sharp, but definitely with some bite. “Naruto, I know, can handle himself if he’s alone. _You,_ I have no idea about.”

Embarrassed, she opened her mouth, ready to refute him but realised that she didn’t know what to refute him on. What was she opposing here? That he had kept an eye on her even after moving off? Was she happy that he was treating her like a team-mate or angry that he did such a thing after willingly forcing her to pick the strings? Discontent swirled with her anger in her gut, sitting heavily with her lunch.

“Not to gather information,” Sasuke said softly, more to himself. “Not to investigate. So, a _who_ instead of a _what, when, how_ or _why._ ” He tilted his head. “Not Miyake. Not any criminals.” His mouth quirked, “Hn, you recognised some of the failed genin there, didn’t you?”

“What of it?” She asked sharply, more to cover her instinctive urge to lie.

“They must have been fairly important to you, for you to waste mission time.” He said serenely. At the look on her face, he tilted his head. “Did it not go well? Old friend not take it too well that they failed and you succeeded? What did you honestly expect?” Some of his politeness stripped away to reveal the savagery underneath, a glimpse into the raw interior which he showed only to his family.

“That’s enough.” She said softly.

“Sakura-san, no one needs friends like that,” Sasuke said, something dead and utterly flat in his tone. “You were distracted for a failure, and just bled without complaint. Do what you want in your time.”

“You’re telling me not to care about what happens to people I know?” She asked fiercely, careful to keep her voice low to avoid them being overhead. “He had _vanished,_ his family was-” She inhaled, “This is _none_ of your business.”

He glared. “He ran away because he failed and you cared enough to check on him? Your heart will kill you if you care for every failure you meet.”

“He is _not_ a failure-” She whispered hotly but they had taken too long. Obito poked his head around the doorframe, a question halfway formed from a pout at being ignored.

“Guys?” He asked curiously. “Want to tell us what you found out, instead of with each other first?”

Sasuke broke eye contact first, ripping his glare away into something almost neutral. “Hn. Here.” He tossed the papers at Sakura, not _quite_ petty enough to send them scattering into a mess. Obito sent him a narrowed look anyway, the man not idiotic enough to fall for that trick.

The kitchen was two rooms away and the only one lit with a soft yellow light. Glazed lanterns cast colourful chinks of light on the walls. The Banchou sat cross-legged on the far side of the low table, blowing out a flaming splint with a truly ferocious scowl. A row of neat rabbit lamps lay before him, their crystal sparkling brightly from the candle flame. Naruto watched them in undisguised fascination and half-eaten snacks marked where Obito and the man had been conversing.

Their sensei herded them straight there, and padded to his seat, smiling beatifically at the irritated man.

"You have your minions now, so you won't be as bored anymore." The Banchou spoke waspishly. "I’m out, I have a hunt to plan."

“It breaks my heart that you don’t prefer my company.” Sakura had no idea how Obito could say such mocking words with such a sweet smile. “But my kids have worked their arses off lying for you-"

"Which is what I'm _paying_ them to do." The Banchou interjected sharply. “Don’t say it like you’re doing me a favour-”

"So, you can at least listen to them." Obito continued as if the man had never spoken, finishing triumphantly.

The Banchou rolled his eyes to the ceiling and used his chopsticks to steal a dumpling from the shared plate. "Don't even _pretend_ that you haven't been investigating Gato. Lying for me, my ass- lying _to_ me, more like." Despite his words, he did look to the genin, gaze resting for a second on each of them in turn.

"You know who it is." Naruto frowned, uncurling his points on his fingers. "You knew what we would do. I don’t understand why you didn’t just tell us to do it in the first place."

“Because I don’t need your help, kid.” The Banchou told him sarcastically. “Any other silly questions?”

Sakura reached for one of the rabbit lamps, childishly entrapped by the shifting colours and sparkling lights. “You don’t need our help,” She agreed, “But you needed us to be a distraction. There’s other shinobi in the area and I bet you thought that a Konoha Jonin’s presence would stump them while you did whatever you needed to do.”

Sasuke shot her an extremely sharp look. The Banchou laughed, cold as ice. “Genin acting as a distraction?”

She faltered but Naruto backed her up instantly. “No.” He corrected, eyes narrowing, with a similarly sharp look thrown her way. “A Jonin Sensei as a distraction. Which idiot would dare move against a Konoha team in Fire Country with their sensei in the same square mile. It’s easy, get us to do whatever highly visible random task and let Obi-Nii’s presence do the rest.”

In some sense, Sakura could appreciate the efficiency of the minimalist plan. Why let the spurious moving pieces know of the greater clockwork?

The Banchou gazed at them incredulously, then whirled on Obito, only to stop short at the man’s little pleased smile. “You didn’t tell them. This wasn’t you.” The man realised, abruptly losing steam, and running a tense hand through his hair. Obito toasted him with the teacup. The Banchou laughed again, this time more disbelieving than angry, “Cute, shy and sensible. Son of a _bitch,_ Uchiha.”

Obito had known. He had known and still got them to figure it out anyway. A vague sense of rising irritation prickled down her spine, was it too much to ask for transparency? Not for the first time, she wondered what the man would actually do if one of them was threatened.

Sasuke’s words were incredibly even as he stepped forward to be even with his glaring team-mates. “We’d like the truth now.”

The warm satisfaction coiling in her belly at successfully overthrowing their useless image with the Banchou turned into wriggling snakes with the man’s explanation.

The Banchou of Tanzaku Gai dropped into his seat and sighed with a final look at the smirking Obito, “We think it’s a lone chunin.” He offered at last. “Unaffiliated, which is where the trouble is. Gato hired them to be muscle from his home base but this becomes a cross-country operation here. We have a bit of leeway with foreign threats but for infiltration cases like these, we’re bound to call a Jonin as a witness. For _fuck’s sake,_ Uchiha, you couldn’t corral them? This is meant to be a secret.”

Obito shrugged, “My team’s smart and I’m just a pretty face. What do you want from me?”

The look the Banchou slanted him had to be seen to be believed. How dangerous was a single chunin? Sakura _didn’t know,_ but if Obito was content to the point of letting them wander by themselves…? The man sipped at his tea. “A lone chunin isn’t much to worry about.” He said dismissively. “You three don’t need to worry.”

"Ah, dear." Miyake Asari entered the conversation, appearing in the doorway, a steaming pot of noodles in her hands. "How did you find out about the shinobi?"

Sakura twisted to face her, trying to imagine her Academy sensei kidnapping children as a reference point. "Momochi Zabuza told me."

The pot hit the floor with a deafening crash, steaming contents spilling all over the floor. Miyake Asari actually staggered, fingers white and face tight. Obito choked on his tea, ungraceful for the first time she had seen him ever. The Banchou swallowed wrong and started coughing in painful wheezes, chopsticks clattering to the floor. Naruto stared at her in dawning awe and horror as he realised who the man had been and Sasuke’s eyes were drawn wide, the boy genuinely stunned.

Taken aback by the violent reactions, Sakura could only blink in confusion.

Obito, still choking, slammed his palm onto the table to get her attention. "I'm sorry." He spluttered. "I misheard you. Say that again."

The mother and son’s expressions darkened thunderously. " _Momochi Zabuza_ _is visiting my little_ town?" The Banchou lips peeled back, eyes _alive_ with a truly dangerous light. Static sparked down his fingers, raising the hair on the back of her neck. His mother snapped something in a Kumo dialect and he inclined his head ever so slightly, knuckles a vicious white.

Oh. Sakura looked between the furious hosts and her team. A look of dark amusement crossed Obito’s face so quickly that she thought she had imagined that cool considering look. The man settled on coughing to clear his throat; his expression hidden by his fist.

So… Zabuza hadn't been a nice, friendly lawyer then. That was a shame, she had quite liked him.

"How can you know who Gato is and not who Momochi is?!" Naruto almost shrieked, windmilling his arms, simultaneously very concerned and incredulous. "Come on! Bounty of ten million yen as of three years ago. That man was _Momochi?! Why did you have lunch with him!!?_ "

“You had lunch with him?” Obito cut in so sharply that Naruto fell silent as if cut by a knife, mouth opening and closing in disbelief.

“You did _what._ ” The Banchou was staring at her as if he had never seen her before. Obito seized her wrist and checked her pulse, her breathing and her pupils, muttering under his breath. His fingers glowed green. Miyake Asari tossed him a kit from a hidden cupboard and the man made her sit there like a monkey while he drew blood.

“I handled the food.” She tried to protest but it was met with an utterly flat look from all of them. Who the heck was the man who was twice as dangerous as Asari in her prime? “Who even is he? Why are you all panicking- someone please explain.”

“Sakura-chan had lunch with Momochi Zabuza.” Naruto was murmuring to himself, shell-shocked. “He’s more likely to have her for lunch, what the fuck. Sasuke, what the fuck. Why did you stop watching-”

Her last teammate had his head in his hands. “ _Why,_ ” He stressed, “Did you talk to a man with a sword bigger than him and think that was a good idea?" He pulled away to ask her scathingly. "Or one who didn't show his face?"

Sakura held up both hands, trying to reconcile those descriptions with the friendly man she had spoken with. "I think there's been a misunderstanding."

"What misunderstanding can there be with you telling us you spoke to Zabuza Momochi?" The Banchou asked, tone rising sharply, reaching for a glass of water to clear his throat. “It’s clear that you don’t know the name. _Someone_ told you the name and which fool pretends to be Momochi?”

"He didn't have a sword." Sakura shot back, bewildered. "He was Gato’s lawyer."

The Banchou choked on his drink again.

"Sakura!" Obito sounded like he couldn’t choose between laughter or tears. "Momochi Zabuza is a missing Nin from Kiri. He’s famous for being one of the Seven Swordsmen! Naruto, get me a book," The blond tossed him a little softbound book from an inner jacket pocket and the man flipped to the correct page and showed her an image of a ferocious man with bandages wrapped around his lower face and wild spiky hair. A vicious-looking sword dominated the image.

Sakura had never seen this man before in her life. Sakura would have remembered high-tailing it out of there if she had seen him. She opened her mouth but her words weren’t necessary. Obito didn’t need verbal conformation for what her reaction was screaming.

"Tell me _exactly_ what happened from the moment we split up." The man ordered. “Miyake, I will have your analyst’s head _._ ”

“He…had the same hair colour?” She managed, trying in vain to find any similarities but coming up short. It didn’t take very long to explain her day and the Jonin looked very grim at the end of it.

"Henge?" Sasuke asked Obito.

"Maybe." The man muttered. "But Momochi's not the type to trick genin by pretending to be anything other than what he is. No, the important thing is that he did this when I specifically stopped watching because Sakura took a break. The _one_ time she was in my blind spot and he struck."

Had _everyone_ been watching her?! Sakura quelled the rising irritation because of course, Obito wouldn’t let them wander completely unsupervised when he _knew_ there was an enemy nearby. Her fingers brushed a hard corner in her pocket.

She pulled out the business card. "Oh. He left this behind."

Obito took it between two fingers and flipped it to reveal sharp writing: _t_ _hey're being moved tomorrow. Where the rivers meet, there's a holding cell for all of them. If you want to save them, I suggest you hurry._

"It's obviously a trap." The Banchou scoffed, looking over the Jonin’s shoulder.

"That man wants to draw you out." Asari cackled, wrinkled folds creasing into a smile. The food lay forgotten on the ground. "Draw you out by the water, where he is the strongest." She drew a finger over her jugular.

"Then, why use the name Momochi?" Sakura asked earnestly. "He must have known that the second you heard that name, none of you would trust what he said." Obito tapped the card thoughtfully against his lip, instinctively falling into a pretty smile to hide his thoughts. For the moment, it was best to listen.

"Maybe, it's someone else using Momochi's name." Naruto offered, pacing up and down the kitchen. "Maybe, it’s a reverse ploy by the Chunin to use a big name to stump us before Obito stumps them. I saw the man too; I agree- he didn’t seem like the bingo books."

"Momochi is an elite nin for a reason though." Sasuke reminded him. “How could he get to that stage by relying on brute force every time?” Naruto acknowledged the point with a frown.

"Where the Xanxe and the Yiye meet,” The Banchou threw his head back, musing. “There’s no cabin in that area." He announced flatly after a moment of consideration. “The ground can’t support heavy structures there.”

"Gato deals in wood, idiot son." Asari snapped at him. "It would not be out of the impossible for him to throw up a structure based on Wave’s stilt houses. You know what we have to do, sensei." She turned glinting eyes that were far too old and amused for her face on a silent Obito. He inclined his head at the question but didn’t answer straight away.

“The Xanxe and the Yiye.” The man murmured, returning the card to Sakura. “Miyake, you have the right of it- their physical properties are important. The Yiye is faster and carries more sediment whereas the Xanxe is a beast of a waterway. Where they meet…it’s…it’s not optimal for a water nin. The slurry created by the waters mixing, it’s not easy to manipulate unless you have a strong earth affinity to filter out the sediment. It’s not like Kiri’s drainage basins or great lakes where the water is pure. It’s also not easy to create mist in such an environment. This is a strange place for a known water nin to draw us out to. He would have been better served by staying on the Xanxe. This new player, I doubt his claim of being Momochi.”

The light faded quickly in Tanzaku Gai; the sun couldn’t compete with the surrounding forest once it went too low. The window’s light had changed to a dark twilight purple when she hadn’t noticed, the town lighting up with coloured lanterns and candles at every window. At night, the ugly town became a lit beauty, floating lanterns lifting into the sky to mark the streets.

Despite this, there was enough light to illuminate the Banchou’s startled expression as Obito dropped the playboy mask for the first time to lay down his analysis. Miyake Asari stared for a second before bursting into breathless laughter.

Their sensei drummed his fingers on the low table. "Sorry Sakura, but I'm going to have to ask you to spring the trap." He smiled to ward off her sudden cold shock.

"No." Sasuke interrupted almost instantly and the man changed targets, arching an eyebrow.

"No?" He repeated with some amusement. “Go on. Fill me in.”

"You can’t be so biased; you didn't ask us what we found." Sasuke rubbed at his temple. “It might not be as shocking as finding Momochi single-handedly but I’m not ashamed of it.” Sakura almost accidentally crushed the card, a flare of heat blooming behind her ribs.

Obito's eyes sharpened and she was reminded of the day he took out of her house.

"Either tell us or get out of the way, baby Uchiha. This isn’t the time for mystery." The Banchou took up the bait irritably. Sasuke sent him a coolly annoyed look. _Good._ Sakura hoped that he felt the irritation as keenly as she did. Disquiet played on her nerves, inexplicable dread building like a slowly sinking ship. She didn’t like working like this- probabilities were only safe on paper.

“Of the fourteen children, eight were from dock families.” Sasuke laid down the facts. “Three more were from immigrants. Two were visiting their maternal clan’s homes. Only one of them doesn’t match this pattern of foreign connections and he vanished at the same time as another, so I think he was a witness and just taken to shut him up. Sakura-san, let me borrow your notes.”

He took her neat forms and laid out an arrangement on the floor, pointing between the important parts.

“These three fathers work on the same ship.” He tapped three families. “The _Painted Lady,_ she’s restocking here for a week before returning to Wave. Their families just live here-”

“What is it restocking?” Obito interrupted.

“Hemp,” Sasuke answered. “Jute products. Ropes. Lacquer, beeswax. But with the children gone, the fathers won’t leave understandably, and one of them was the captain’s child. That shipment is not going anywhere. This one is a travelling merchant.” He pointed. “He buys passage on ferries and peddles medicine with his daughter. They were _meant_ to travel to Wave after this, but…” He shrugged, “These two are dock engineers. They’re currently working on the _Wolfsmaw._ It’s carrying a shipment of steel from Iron headed to Wave, but it got damaged by pirates before they entered port. Again, that ship is heading nowhere anytime soon.”

“Pirates?” The Banchou and Obito asked incredulously. “In Fire rivers?”

Naruto cut in, “I checked at the insurance offices, payment was done for a pirate attack and the report was quite detailed. They didn’t make up that encounter.” He picked up a candle and knelt to point at a picture. “The Madam of the Hui was bringing her twins to meet her family. Her husband is the magistrate of the border region and to stop the children from being smuggled out by the _Seirya_ ,” He named another major river, “They’ve imposed heavy monitoring on every boat. The little tributaries have been completely blockaded. They can’t touch the royal rivers, but all water flow in and out of Fire is backlogged at the minute.”

“We could go through them all, but it’s clear that taking the children shuts down trade with Wave,” Sasuke said bluntly. “It’s the same story every time. If Gato is behind this, there’s something in Wave that he wants stopped desperately. This starvation of resources… there’s only one thing I could find which he would want stopped.”

"A bridge," Asari spoke, running a thumb down her jaw. “It’ll shake his foundation in Wave if that’s finished.”

Sasuke nodded at her.

Obito clicked his tongue in displeasure, resting his head against his fingers. "Economic security will be the bane of Gato’s life." His voice was dark. "The loss in Wave if the people switch to other traders or start their own supply will be tremendous."

"It’s not even blackmail." Naruto sounded awed. “It’s just…natural consequences.”

The Banchou’s laugh was humourless. “It’s called arrogance, kid.”

"So the question is." Obito mused. "What is his next step? He’s neutralised the resources into Wave; there’s now little point concentrating the effort here and we can see that with the drop off in kidnappings. Something must happen in Wave in the next few days for him to capitalize on this opportunity. We can take advantage of this oversight. Nice work all of you, by the way. You’ve exceeded my expectations." He flicked a glance at the Banchou, “Tell us if we’re overstepping the mission bounds.”

“As if you care what I have to say about mission parameters.” The other man said flatly.

Their sensei smirked. “Aren’t you glad you stuck around with my team?”

The sense of being caught up in something spanning countries from a little, candle-lit kitchen was incredibly humbling. They had come here for a pretence and had walked into a conspiracy to entrap a country in poverty.

“Alright. I’m going to stop you before you plan too far ahead.” The younger Miyake made a sharp chopping motion with his hand. “You’re planning for using the mystery Momochi to trip up Gato and making him admit that he’s been playing with foreign espionage and then doing something with the Daimyo, yes?”

“The Fire Court won’t stand for economic sabotage when they would profit from the built bridge,” Obito admitted.

“Right. Right.” The Banchou agreed, “Because the Daimyo’s not an idiot. But that’s _far_ too passive.”

The Jonin paused, “Exiling, impoverishing and possibly having Gato executed on espionage charges is passive? What do you want to do?” He sounded baffled, “Cut his throat personally?”

“You can kill the man but you won’t kill the idea.” The Banchou poured himself a drink. “Whoever takes over next will try the same thing and I’m done letting them ruin my spare time. I’m also not very fond of letting the Fire Court profit off my territory’s children. The Wave Court is not completely friendless and Gato remains on their good side, I won’t let him slip away with politics.”

“Then?” Naruto ventured, slightly pale. “You want him dead?”

The Banchou sent him a piercing look. “Even if I did, you don’t have to worry. We’ll start small. We’ll cripple his foothold in Fire and Wave first. Let him taste despair before his end comes. You think I'm playing the ninja game?" The younger Miyake raised an eyebrow. "You really think I'm going to be stabbing in the dark for what Gato may or may not do, with a puppet named Zabuza who may or may not be Zabuza. No." He slammed his cup on the table with a crack. "We destroy Gato's foothold tonight. None of _he may do this_ or _he may do that_ bullshit. Set off the ambush if you like, distract the nin for me. But this is my city, and he has tried my patience too far. Do you see where I am going with this? Yes?"

Sasuke looked taken aback. “How easy can it be to destroy a foothold?”

“Sunk-cost fallacy,” Sakura said quietly. “The price of retaining a foothold just has to reach higher than what Gato is willing is to throw away. He’s rich, yes, but it’s not liquid. It’s tied up in contracts which make him responsible if he fails to deliver.”

"That…" Naruto pointed at the Banchou, struggling for words. "You’re using pure blunt force for a precision problem.” He accused.

“Come on, kid.” The Banchou turned his head ever so slightly with a shadow of a smile. “Don’t tell me that you don’t want to hit him really hard too?”

The blond’s jaw dropped. “That’s…not shinobi thinking." He pursed his lips and nodded. "I like it." The boy curled his fingers into a fist and smacked it into his other palm. “Let’s send him reeling. What a piece of trash.”

Sakura, too, was slightly taken aback at the sheer straightforwardness of the plan. Her brain and sensibilities demanded finesse and this straight-up destruction seemed brutally inelegant. But it was sensible- she was forced to admit, what would send a clearer message?

"So, that leaves us with the question of the maybe Momochi." Sasuke rested his chin on the back of his hand. "I say that we go and check the note out. Our divisions seem to be working well so we should stick to them. Obito's Sharingan can tell if any jutsu is being used and if it is, we get out of there fast. Sakura-san, keep the Banchou's mother and the house safe, would you?"

Not Sakura. _Not_ Sakura. She wasn't a part of the team pronoun _'we'_. For a moment, Sakura just felt like laughing to cover the urge to scream. When the madness passed, her jaw clenched so hard that her teeth ached. The worst part was that she understood, she could understand that Sasuke was used to working with his cousin and brother, but surely, she was-

No. She wasn't part of them. Despite them repeating over and over, she was never a part of them in the way they gravitated around each other like some macabre star system. As if reassuring words were enough to keep her docile and deceived. The slow-building anger she had been suppressing over weeks churned into _rage._ How dare they, she didn’t need anyone’s pity- if Sakura was not wanted, she wasn’t wanted and she didn’t need any pretty words or forced dynamics to give her false hope.

Sasuke either didn't think her capable or he thought that taking the chance of upsetting a known dynamic in a dangerous situation was not worth the risk. Bitterly, she mocked the dark-haired boy in her head, what did he think would happen if they were attacked as a team? Would she disappear to another location miraculously while _their precious teamwork_ miraculously defeated everyone?

"Oh, did you want to come with us, Sakura-san?" Sasuke tilted his head.

Damn him. She didn’t need to ask for his permission like some child, that question should never have been asked and they all knew it. Sasuke had phrased that question so that if she replied _yes_ , Sakura was the one responsible for discontent in the team because the boy’s reasoning was solid. The division _had_ worked well. With the entire team deployed, their base was its most vulnerable. She also looked foolish because that tone had no belief in her as a combatant. 

At some point, she had bitten herself and blood flooded her mouth. It was the only thing keeping her from snapping at everyone, the fact that they would see that she had lost control over a seemingly insignificant matter, but this was important! If she gave way now, how many times would she give way in the future?

_A placeholder._

Injustice choked her like a hand wrapping around her throat. What she had been proud of- her discovery- wasn’t even hers. _Trust no one,_ Obito had advised them, but didn’t that apply to her as well? What reason did they have to trust her so soon? Damn the man, he had said it to her face and Sakura had thought it was a sign of warmth.

"Is that the decision, then? Sakura to remain behind and we go on ahead?" The man in question asked placidly and Sakura whirled on him, furious and bright-eyed. Why did the _genin_ still have the point on a mission where the parameters had changed this much? What was the man trying to teach them?

Sasuke’s narrow gaze ripped away from her, “The Momochi candidate gave the note to her.” He said simply. “If it’s an ambush he prepared for her, and she doesn’t go, he’ll be the one confused.”

Obito inclined his head, acknowledging the point but said nothing more.

Sakura was shaking. "You too?" She asked Naruto scathingly. The boy looked away; lips pressed together tightly. That just made it worse, he clearly knew what she was feeling and he _looked away._ _But what had she expected from him? For him to disagree with Sasuke when it came to something like this?_

If she made a protest, she looked unprofessional. If she went along with it, she came off as the doormat. Sakura thought that it was high time for a new plan.

"Banchou." She addressed the yakuza. He arched an eyebrow, looking very unimpressed at this drama interrupting his planning session.

"Hm?"

"Could you use an extra pair of hands dismantling Gato’s foothold?" The shock on all the male genin’s faces was something she would hold close to her heart for a very long time. Who said being petty was disgraceful? Sakura had pettiness for _days._ She missed Obito’s razor blade smile behind his hand.

"Sure." The Banchou’s mouth twitched into a mean smile and to her surprise, mild approval flashed across his face. "You are my kouhai, after all. An argument could be made." Asari grinned and cackled under her breath.

"You thought I needed protection, child? This house?" She thrust her stick in Sasuke's direction. He dodged instinctively. "If they come after _me_ _,_ they'll be the ones who need protection!"

"You’re retired." The Banchou said mildly.

"Shut up, idiot of a son." Asari hissed back. "Go plan your vandalism."

Obito nodded. "I have no problems with this arrangement.” Sakura had no time for the bewilderment to sink in, “Miyake-"

The younger Miyake rolled his eyes, “I know, I know. What a dragon, geez.”

"No!" Naruto cried and Sasuke’s knuckles were white. "Sakura! What are you thinking?"

"I’m thinking that I would like to contribute other than standing around watching other people fight. Protect someone else in your own time." Sakura answered quietly. "Don't tell me that we're a team in Konoha and how we're all going to work out if we just have each other’s backs, and the second we step out of the village, you two decide on some stupid decision to leave me out of a fight."

Naruto's jaw snapped shut. "That…wasn't…"

"If that’s the path you’ve chosen, then no one has the right to argue with you." Obito intervened sharply, tone serious for once. "If that is what you think is right, then stand your ground against anything and _anyone_ in your way, Sakura." He looked at her but all she could see was Sasuke in his features. Was that implicit approval of her actions? Or a warning to not falter once she had decided to stand against the others?

"Tch." Sasuke sneered lightly, drawing the attention, scorn passing over his face. She really didn't understand him. “What happened to working with criminals? Or is it fine when you get what you want?” Over their heads, the Banchou arched an eyebrow at a sheepish Obito.

“Yes, I’m sorry I didn’t let you make the team decision on your own.” She replied blandly. “Am I interfering with your part? No? Then why don’t you shut it.”

“Guys.” Naruto tried cautiously, sensing disaster.

The corners of Sasuke’s eyes tightened. "Does Konoha pull replacements out of the failed lot or move a more capable genin into the empty spots?" He asked cruelly: Sakura's breath turned to ice in her lungs and caught there. How _dare_ he? That _arrogant_ -

Sound faded to a squeal, a high pitched shrieking in her ears and abruptly, the little voice of reason in her head pleading for her to check herself fell silent.

"Sasuke!" Their sensei barked. "That went too far, apologise _now_." He looked furious, his flirty exterior nowhere to be seen, dark eyes crinkled in anger. Even Naruto looked slightly taken aback, mouth dropping open slightly in dismay.

"I guess that I won't get to tell you- _'I told you so'_ ," Sasuke spoke directly to Sakura, shrugging off Naruto as the blond caught onto his arm in an attempt to stop the fight.

He had gone for the wrong one.

Pain cracked across her knuckles and Sasuke tumbled out of his chair, head snapping to the side.

He stared at her from the floor, clutching his cheek, something truly ugly in that expression. It was one of the few solid hits she had managed to land on him since being placed on a team with the boy and Sakura withdrew her fist, the achievement momentarily distracting her. Immediately, Obito there, gently wrapping his fingers around her wrist and pulling her away. It should have felt like lancing a wound, but the violence just drew the rot between them to the surface.

"You-!" Sasuke spat. "That's what I get for _trying_ to keep you safe?" The Banchou sighed and discreetly ushered his extremely fascinated mother out of the room and shut it behind him, muttering about how it wasn't a drama for her enjoyment.

…Safe? _Safe?_

Sakura was livid. Mocking her about her death was trying to keep her safe? It was insulting. _Degrading_. Like she was a possession that couldn't be broken and so could never be used.

"Sasuke!" Naruto groaned, giving up trying to avert anything and covered his face with his hands.

"Well, _screw you!_ " Sakura screamed. "Screw you and your stupid ideas, who the fuck told you that telling me I was going to die was going to make me roll over and agree to kept safe like some _pet!_ "

Sasuke stared at her, eyes wide. Naruto refused to look at either of them. Her scream echoed into the still room.

Then, chaos broke loose.

Sasuke roared back. "You're not good enough! Momochi's not an opponent you can face!"

"And _you_ can?" Sakura laughed bitterly, letting her frustration out. "Of course, the two graduating genii can do it. With a month of training, you think you can go up against a Jonin!?"

Obito moved and Sakura shoved at him, wordlessly furious at all of them. It was the man’s job to make sure they were a team, and instead, she didn’t know who or what to trust to look out for her. But deep in herself, she realised that she was being unfair and so those words never made it past her lips.

"Sasuke, Sakura!" Obito's yell was lost in the eruption of the three-way screaming match between the genin. Naruto was yelling about how they had to shut up and concentrate on the mission. Sasuke was yelling about how Sakura didn’t understand and how she needed to train more before taking on tasks beyond her. Sakura was yelling about how their stupid dynamic had to change and that she was sick of being treated as the third wheel.

Obito's patience snapped like a wire.

" _Alright!"_ He bellowed, sending his chair toppling as he stood, easily drowning out all the screaming. " _What_ do you think you are doing? This is _disgraceful_ _!_ " All three of them shut up to see their sensei's eyes flash dangerously. A low-level killing intent leaked into the air. It wasn't that much but since he had _never_ shouted at them before or even vaguely hinted at threatening them, they were stunned into silence.

"You are in the middle of a mission." The man hissed, fingers supporting his temples. "You cannot afford to behave like children, especially not with what's at stake. Keep the disputes at home where it cannot be overseen. In the field, we behave as an unit."

The majority of the chastisement was directed at Sakura and Sasuke, but Naruto wasn’t spared by virtue of collective punishment. She stared at her feet, cowed for the minute but not docile. Anger still vibrated through her.

“I never want to hear those words again, Sasuke.” Obito’s voice was now terrifyingly flat, losing the growl now that they weren’t talking over him. The boy said nothing. His sandals stopped before her and her chin was jerked up.

“We don’t use violence on our team-mates,” Obito told her. She got the distinct impression that if he had to tell her again, she wouldn’t get off with a warning. He let her go and turned to Naruto, eyeing him curiously. “You’ve already realised, haven’t you? What I’m going to say.”

The blond nodded jerkily.

“Cowardice has no place here.” The man said grimly. “It’s not what I expected from you, Naruto.”

Naruto's face crumpled, stricken. Sakura was confused, what had Naruto done which was cowardly? Despite having the least chastisement, it was the blond who was the most affected. Neither Sasuke nor Sakura backed down so easily. It would have been understandable if Naruto was reacting badly to having Obito, his brother in all but blood, raise his voice at him or if it was the fact that Sasuke and he were arguing for the first time she had known them- the kind boy’s world was made up entirely of those two people…but for a cowardly act? Obito’s quiet disappointment was more lethal than any argument.

The Jonin sighed, losing all steam. "I'm not mad at you, Naruto." He stretched out a hand to touch the blond boy's shoulder. “It’s understandable.” The boy knocked the hand away and Obito didn’t try again.

Sasuke turned hateful eyes on Sakura for the first time. The scorn in those dark eyes was like embers. Those eyes laid the blame for this directly at her feet. Beneath the polite mask, Sakura had discovered, the Uchiha was a pit of seething emotion. _Look at what you've done-_ they accused, Sasuke’s fists clenched into tight balls.

"Shut up!" Naruto didn’t need words to pick up on the context in some near-miraculous display of intuition. To be fair, he didn’t need much when both Sasuke and Sakura were glaring at each other with incredible tension. There was a dangerous waver in that yell. "Stop fighting! This is both of your faults!"

Sasuke shut up so fast that his teeth snapped together, jaw working with tense, unsaid lines. Sakura crossed her arms over her chest, nails cutting into her arms. Was she meant to stop because Naruto was upset? The unfairness of it raged at her, of _course,_ Sakura felt guilty for catching the boy in the cross-fire, she wasn’t heartless, but if none of them had cared about what she felt, why shouldn’t she reciprocate the favour?

Whatever Obito was going to say was interrupted by the deliberate click of the doorknob. "Well, if you did want to come." The Banchou abruptly poked his head around the door, utterly unfazed by the argument he had to have overheard. "I'm leaving now to coordinate." Sakura was pinned with three stares, each of them very different from the other.

"I'm coming." She answered, quietly turning to leave.

"Sakura."

"Sorry, sensei," Sakura said. "I could apologise but you'd all tell I was lying." The man passed a hand over his forehead, suddenly looking very weary but let it go. He accepted her headband with a nod.

"I don't have anything to apologise for," Sasuke muttered at the opposite wall.

"When we get back, we are so continuing this discussion." Obito groaned. "Alright Sakura, stay safe and listen to what Miyake tells you. Boys, stay here for a minute."

The girl looked like she wanted to say something for a second, eyes narrowing but let it go, resolution firming her gaze. Obito felt like laughing, who had told him to have such a wilful team- he would have if it wasn’t utterly inappropriate in the scenario. For a moment, his arguments with Kakashi rung in his head, reaching through his memories to override his team’s faces. The absence of Rin in his overlapping memories disorientated him for the same moment, some stubborn part trying to find the comparison and failing, at best finding Naruto as a replacement. People always did fall to what they knew best.

Her voice whispered in the back of his head- _Hey, Obito. You should break them._

Was this sufficiently broken yet? He _vastly_ preferred this outcome, this fierce argument when they still had time to unify before any real danger. The girl was more stubborn than he had thought and Sasuke too placid for any real fire but the long term damage had been enough.

"You idiot, Sasuke." He spoke after making sure Sakura was out of ear-shot, crossing his arms. "What _possessed_ you?" His dark-haired cousin stubbornly didn't meet his eyes. "Compassion. Tact. Kindness. That's what I've taught you to use." Obito counted them off on his fingers. "Don't cling to hate and cruelty. Because what you said _was_ cruel. What happened to making an effort Sasuke? You were trying so hard back at home."

“I’m right.” The boy snapped at him and Obito arched an eyebrow at the insolence. Sasuke inhaled, still furious, still taut as a drawn bowstring, and something in his restraint snapped in the presence of family. “She’s not listening!”

“You got frustrated?” Obito ruffled Naruto’s hair in an attempt to cheer the blond up. It wasn’t his fault to the extent the boy thought it was, this split would have happened with or without his interference.

“That man looked at this team and decided on _her_ as the weakest link.” Sasuke paced, agitated enough to raise his voice ever so slightly. “It could have been me. It could have been Naruto; we were all alone at various points but he went for her- the only one who wouldn’t know the name he used.” Sasuke stared at him, eyes tight. “She can’t even beat _us_ in a spar yet.” His little angry cousin snapped. “Which is _fine,_ she doesn’t need to. But the trap was set for her, and if she can’t beat us, what hope does she have against a chunin? If she covered the house, the elder Miyake-san is _here,_ ” He pointed haphazardly towards the door, “That’s a Jonin looking out for her if the man decides to track her down.”

Sasuke flung himself into a chair. “She’s frightened.” He ground his palms into his eyes, voice suddenly low. “I know. We’re not clicking at all, this…I _was_ trying to keep her safe. I swear Obito, I said that we would watch her back…and I was hoping scaring her into staying here would do the job."

“You failed utterly.” His last genin pointed out, bewildered. “Why do you think she’s going with him? Her goddamn health or something?” Sasuke, caught off guard, burst into surprised laughter before covering his mouth. Emboldened by the self-realised mirth, Naruto laid into Sasuke. "Telling her that she was going to die was _way_ over the line."

Sasuke winced.

Naruto shook his head, sounding far calmer than before. "If you _knew_ she was terrified of being killed on this team, you shouldn’t have said it. You could have explained, Sasuke! Just what is the point of training as a team, if we’re just going to split into divisions and have her go alone?"

“You really want her here?” Sasuke queried, something far too sharp behind that mild question.

Naruto recognised it as well, eyes narrowing. “What I want has nothing to do with it.” He snapped. “Someone put her here with us and we both know that if we don’t cooperate, it’ll be someone far worse. _Sasuke; s_ omeone who _wants_ to work with us will always be leagues better than an outright spy.”

“An unwitting informant is harder to deal with than a spy.” Sasuke sighed, winding his thumbs together. “I won’t lie, that played a part. It’s tragic if she’s being manipulated but the risk is one that _we_ take on.” He glared, “If her staying behind both protects her and leaves her blind, why wouldn’t I argue for it?”

Obito fought the urge to groan. His foolish, _foolish_ team. This was in _no_ way their concern. What was he in this team? Mere decoration? “Why don’t you leave that to _me_ to deal with?” He suggested and the boys glanced at him. “If I’m not worried, don’t take it upon yourself to complicate the matter. For now, she’s a team-mate, that’s _all._ Treat the title with some respect.”

“You’re confident?” Sasuke asked, narrowing his eyes to dark slits.

Obito was offended, “I think I would recognise amateur information peddling under my nose in my own domain, thank you very much.”

Naruto clapped his hands together, laughing, “That’s great!”

“Great.” Obito echoed sarcastically, “Now back to the matter at hand.” He wasn’t sure that he liked either of their attitudes towards their third member, but now that the misunderstanding had been dealt with, the outright suspicion might die a slow death. They needed to realise that what they were doing was an insult and would hinder their female teammate far more than help her. He really wasn't surprised Sakura had reacted in the way that she had.

"Tell me, you two." He asked. "Do you think she appreciates what you're doing?"

"She's not meant to," Naruto answered immediately. "Obito-Nii, it'll be our fault if she gets killed!" He gripped Obito's forearm, forehead furrowed. "So, we should concentrate on improving as a team, right? That's _why_ we spent all of the past few weeks at home, away from anyone else."

A reasonable conclusion given the facts, Obito thought glumly. If he had wanted them to become a team as fast as possible, he wouldn’t have waited this long for their tempers to ignite. He gently removed Naruto’s hand from his shirt. "She is going to _die_ if you keep this up." He told them gently but firmly, and satisfaction shot through him at how both their eyes went wide. "Teamwork isn't about protecting someone. It's about watching each other's backs and if you don't trust her enough to do that, tell me."

“The risk-” Sasuke started.

Obito interjected. “But, Sasuke,” He said seriously, “That’s not a decision you can make for others. If she leaps head-along into danger because she’s accepted the risk, it’s your job to watch her back and trust her to watch yours. You’re not her superior to command her to do anything.”

His baby genin mulled over his words.

"Well, that's the thing you see." Sasuke tilted his head, eyes suddenly very sharp. "I don't trust her. What?" He asked at Naruto’s exasperated glance. "I don't. I've known her for a month and I don't think she'll look out for me like you would. I’m meant to trust her to watch my back on what grounds?"

"But would you look out for her like you would for Naruto?" Obito pointed out delicately and Sasuke flushed a dull red.

He rested a hand on his boys’ head, years of fondness dulling the chastisement. “You’re taking on too much on yourselves. It’s not your responsibility to balance the politics and dangers, that’s mine. Trust more in me, brats, or I’m going to be a useless figurehead as you run off with all of my duties. Anyway,” He flicked a sulking Sasuke on the forehead, “Let’s not waste time, Sakura’s got a head start on us. Let’s check out Momochi’s trap.”

He was nearly out of the door when he heard a small voice behind him. "I didn't mean to make you upset, Naruto."

Obito smiled and carried on.

…..#########################################################...

_Saint’s Rank, Tanzaku Gai, Fire Country:_

Sakura glanced around in awe at the lights floating in the streets. Each couple carried one, the coloured lanterns swaying from the decorated rod. Strings of red, white, and gold were strung between the roofs, candles burning in every window. Light gleamed off every strand of metal like fire, the dense starry canopy visible in the dark twilight. Even the Banchou had slowed down to drink in the lovely sight, dark haori flapping in the evening wind like a cloak. He had handed her a rabbit lantern from somewhere with the terse instruction of lighting their way.

“Why do we need more light?” She had asked him and he almost laughed in irritation.

“We don’t borrow other people’s guiding lights.” The man had said, teeth gritted, “Cast your own shadow.” It had sounded far too much like a quote for her to brush it off as a superstition.

"Are you going to mope about your spat?" He asked her bluntly as they walked through the loud streets. A street vendor tried to sell them fried dumplings and spiced squid sticks and they stopped for a bite, considering that they had left before Asari had the chance to serve them dinner.

"What spat?" Sakura asked coolly, wiping the oil off her fingers. The Banchou smirked faintly, not boor enough to ask her again if she was intent on denying that he could have heard something when he had been pretending that he hadn’t. The difference in treatment when she wasn’t wearing her headband and the man wasn’t in a district where he would be immediately recognised was startling.

“What was your team like?” She asked him to pass the time. She had been expecting him to ignore her or scoff it off but he hummed and considered the question.

“Young.” He decided eventually. “Immature. We all were, but that’s all I remember of them. Truth be told, I only remember Uchiha because he’s the only one who shows up every now and again. I think the others tried again the following year and managed to pass; I don’t recall the names. They sent me a card when one of them died,” He grinned helplessly, “I had known them for years in the Academy and been on a team with them for a day but I had never known them. Not really.” He stripped the meat from his skewer thoughtfully. “The Jonin assigned to us died as well.” He mused. “I remember reading about it, in the list of the dead after the Kyuubi attack.”

“Why yakuza?” She asked him again, “You were like me, right? Why go for that path instead of a trade?”

He pulled a chunk of meat off the skewer with his teeth idly. “Not exactly. Mother’s profession did dictate that I attempt the Academy but I had no love for the craft.” The Banchou shrugged, “Yakuza? Why not? It’s not a bad life. You’d understand if you tried it.” His smirk returned at her instinctive horrified expression.

By that time they had reached the casino and to her gratitude, his attention turned away from her. “Get a cabal together.” The man walked into the suddenly frozen establishment and spoke to one of the pretty kimono-wearing maids. “Two groups of twenty, ten minutes- is Satoshi still here? Good, I have to have fun tonight. Oh, yes- when you’re done with that,” His skewer shifted to point at her lazily, “Get her a hat.”

When the doors opened to the underground lair with a ringing noise, the blond second-in-command lurched upright from his conversation with a woman, glasses slipping down in nose with surprise.

“We’re kicking Gato out.” The Banchou declared, leaping over a barrier smoothly, “Two groups of twenty. Same plan as agreed but you, me and little Miss Sensible here will do the heavy lifting.”

“Already?” The vice asked, taken aback, with a quick glance in her direction. “Alright.”

Sakura was left to her own devices as the base became a hub of activity. Fumio-senpai was nowhere to be seen as were any of the other teens, the area mostly staffed by a skeleton crew until the people, the Banchou had asked for, trickled in with a steady flow.

“So, what’s the plan?” She asked the Banchou, curiously.

“Satoshi, come explain to her.” He said without looking at her, ticking off stuff on a list. “Call him Taichou, little Miss Sensible. You don’t need to know anyone else; they’re fodder and you outrank them. Don’t worry, they know how to get their job done.” He kicked half-heartedly at a man who took too long to find his gear.

The vice grinned at her, a mischievous spark lighting up his eyes. "So, it's the girl of the team who's the assassin." An indulgent smile twisted his mouth. With a laugh, he ruffled her hair and she was reminded of Obito. "I _had_ pegged you as the information specialist. I must be getting rusty." Her forehead felt bare and cold, only highlighting the difference in treatment when she didn’t wear it.

"I'm as much of an assassin as I am an information specialist." She told the blond man calmly. "That is to say, not at all."

He laughed. “Gato’s warehouse stands by the Xanxe, upriver. These groups will split into smaller lots and start a commotion. Stop stealing our livelihoods, go back to where you came from, all those dirty tricks known to cause street violence, you get the idea. Once the guards are drawn out to protect it from the mob, we can enter by the water and …do we feel like fire today?”

“No.” The Banchou answered. “We _do_ need that dock. Find clues for the children. There are rumours of a drug trade as well, see if you can find anything hinting at that.”

“The nin?” She asked.

“Your team is handling that, yes?” The Taichou glanced at his watch. “Something about carefully setting off a trap in the forest? In the time we have, let me walk you through some infiltration basics.” In a stricter tone, he started guiding her through how to make no noise when she moved along with how to stick to shadows. Fascinated, Sakura forgot her argument and the fact that she was technically still upset, and slowly lost herself in practice.

"You're moving your waist too much," Taichou told her in the middle of briefing little groups on what directions to draw the guards away to. "Don't fall into the habit of moving opposite limbs, it wastes movement."

"If you're done, sensei?" The Banchou mocked, fingers hooking a cap over his messy hair. "I think we might be ready to go." There was a subtle look at Sakura's very pink hair and she could have sworn she heard him mutter something about insane shinobi. The thrown hat that smacked into her chest confirmed her suspicion. Sakura was perfectly aware of her hair, thank you. Yes, it was pink. But in a world with red pinwheel eyes, humans filled with bugs and varicose vein vision, what was pink hair in the grand scheme of things?

“Listen, little sensible." The blond Taichou seemed to relish the thought of having a student because instead of helping his subordinates with anything, he just stood there and lectured her. Sakura listened to him obediently and pretended not to see the numerous double takes as the disguised yakuza took in the ridiculous scene. "Never cut off your escape route. Then, you're the one trapped against the wall."

The sky had faded to a midnight blue by the time the last group had been dispatched: “Give them half an hour to get there and start the commotion.” The Banchou strode over, checking his watch. “We’ll take the river route. Brat, can you follow?”

Sakura blinked, “You’re going to _swim_ upriver?” _Bad_ idea. What about the fanged fish and the lampreys?

He knocked her on the forehead, displeased. “It’s too hot for lampreys here. Go further towards the coast to find them, and piranhas only attack under stress. Can’t you take a little love bite? The biggest danger to you is your hair falling into a mess.”

“Pests.” The Taichou coughed. “Diseases. Parasites. We’re taking a boat.” He said to an alarmed Sakura in an undertone. “Don’t worry.” His boss rolled his eyes, having heard that.

When Sakura had heard that they were going to take a boat, she hadn’t imagined this. Saint’s Rank was a block from the river edge, and she had thought that some underling would stash a little row-boat for them to slip into the darkness.

Oh, _no._

Sakura stared dumbstruck at the huge barge draped with streaming silk and colourful lanterns. Vibrant music floated off the deck, people mingling onboard with cups of sake- the sounds of conversation and laughter floated to them as its oars slipped gently into the water. While the Xanxe was larger, the far side almost lost in the night, the barge’s size was nothing to mock. The party was loud, thoroughly distracting and Sakura had never seen such an eye-catching sight in her life. The Banchou _really_ did not like being indirect.

“Wha-”

The men leapt the distance easily, skidding to a halt on the lower deck as a young man in a luxurious blue haori watched with a nervous smile. As it passed, Sakura didn’t have confidence in herself to leap that distance but instead scrambled up and across a tree to drop onto it as it swept below.

_What the,_ she mouthed to the Taichou who winked at her. “Would you ever suspect?”

Well. That was certainly true.

The last thing Sakura would think of when she saw this spectacle was that it concealed the Yakuza oyabun and his first lieutenant along with a genin. Who would suspect that such a hedonistic barge hid a danger? Fireflies fluttered at the bank’s edges, mixing with the streaming silk. An answering cheer erupted from the top deck, drunk calls adding to the noise.

“Miyake-dono.” The young man said, hands fluttering in front of his chest. “How can I serve today? My barge is ready to take you anywhere, say the word.” The pale tinge to his cheeks and the anxious bob of his throat betrayed his nervousness.

The Banchou fixed him with an unconcerned glance, “Maintain your course and return to your guests. No one must suspect we are here.”

The man nodded jerkily; lips dry despite the smell of alcohol. “I…of course. I’m always happy to host you or Satoshi-dono…” He trailed off, eyes landing on her, looking decidedly out of place. Confusion could be read starkly in that face.

“You don’t need to know, Azuchi,” Taichou said, a smiling tiger. “Run along.” The young man paled, not drunk enough to tangle with a yakuza’s veiled warning, and fled up the dark stairs, almost tripping over the bottom step. Sakura felt a little sorry for him. “Azuchi Gin.” The vice introduced her dryly after his hem disappeared into the throng above. “The Import Officer’s son.”

Sakura balanced on the lower handrails, holding on with her fingers to stop toppling backwards off her seat. Tanzaku Gai passed by, shrouded by a vegetative veil and industrious docks, boats moored at the river’s edge as the city of light glowed softly. The forest was pitch black and prone to clicking, thousands of insect calls raising a cacophony. Despite the noise, it was one of the loneliest things she had ever seen. One step away from civilization and yet no one knew they were there. If she reached out a hand, she could blot out its light…

At some unspecified time, the Banchou knocked her on the head and leapt off the barge onto the edge of the land, clambering neatly across the vertical drop until he reached the underside of the dock. The upcoming warehouse was a sombre structure of wood and paint. It was quite a large building, about the size of the Hokage Tower, except flattened, so it sprawled over a decent amount of land around the small dock. It was grim and dark and the windows looked like pits into some ravenous animal's mouth.

Two men stood on the dock, shivering, and chatting. The Taichou slipped into the water like an eel, head reappearing next to the Banchou, and together the two of them grabbed the blissfully ignorant men’s ankles and dragged them into the water. They didn’t even have the chance to scream, the oars’ splashing covered any gurgling panic. That duo did _not_ mess around.

Like spiders, the pair skittered up the side of the dock when they were finished. Sakura tried to ignore the floating _things_ sweeping downstream. She leapt onto the empty dock when the barge passed it. As if remembering he had a kunoichi with him, the Banchou bared his teeth in a wicked grin, silently challenging her if she was capable enough to hold up. There was a hint of the ferocious genin he had been in that smile.

Shouting could be heard from the street. The sounds of a scuffle- many voices were raised in anger- the distraction had worked then. Someone swore quite close to them and there was the sound of running; “Hey, trouble! There’s a mob outside and the gate people can’t hold it on their own; come on! Why are you standing around for?”

The Banchou arched a mocking eyebrow at her, pointing silently. _Pull your weight,_ his expression said.

When the man skidded onto the dock, scanning for the dead guards, at _entirely_ the wrong to see any of them, Sakura hit him in the back of the head with the blunt end of her kunai. She hoped that they didn't expect her to kill him. Her heart hammered long after he crumpled like a cut marionette, steel slipping in her sweaty hands. The vice shot her a proud smile which caught her completely off guard.

The Banchou was already ahead and headed towards the deserted bolted door. The sound of eggshells cracking accompanied her kawarimi and the Banchou looked resigned at the reminder that _yes,_ she was an official genin, who had actually passed both graduation tests.

"Isn't this going to give away the fact that there are intruders?" She asked him. Interesting shadows played over their faces from the jolting lanterns on the street, the argument growing louder and fiercer. “What about a window?”

The man tugged at the lock thoughtfully. "Gato's hired nin." He pointed out flatly. "The last place that nin guard is the front entrance. They all think like you and guard every alternate entrance zealously. We'll just have to deal with non-shinobi security measures." Sakura paused and reran that logic in her head. She couldn't honestly say that he was wrong.

The man flipped a small container out of his pocket and tilted a small amount into the keyhole. Placing the box between his teeth, he produced a lighter and the subsequent, _violent_ reaction ate through the lock’s mechanisms. _Thermite;_ Sakura stared, but the brief burst of heat and intense light was enough to render the lock useless and the man ripped it off with ease.

Sakura picked up the hot lock and juggled it between her hands as the man made quick work of the bolts. After she got a good look at the dark interior, she motioned for them to enter and redid the bolts, stringing the useless lock where it had been in a hope that people wouldn’t look too closely. The yakuza might delight in a direct approach but Sakura had been trained to cover her approach. Kawarimi deposited her next to the men as they lit torches.

Bound crates and tarp-covered piles extended into the distance, their torches illuminating the inside of a packed warehouse. Stairs led away at the side to offices, walkways crisscrossing overhead. As if on a silent agreement, their trio split almost immediately to investigate.

Interested in the separated pile, Sakura wandered to the right and clambered onto the platform to look at why some bound crates had been left apart. The bundles of bound goods were as big as her living room, the girl feeling like an ant next to such monstrous mountains. The first bunch was an ink-stone shipment, the next was pens and Sakura expected to find other academic instruments in the third but she found soap. Baffled, she pulled one out to inspect it. Ink-stones, pens, and soap in one shipment in such huge numbers? What was happening? You didn’t _use_ ink-stones with these kinds of pens either.

Unless…

Sakura spat on her fingers and smeared them against the ink-stones until she had ink. She didn’t need to be a researcher to recognise that it didn’t smell right, the ink gritty and sticky on her skin. Something had been mixed in. Was it the same thing with the pen’s ink cartridges? Instead, Sakura almost impaled herself on the slender syringe when she undid the pen’s chassis with too much haste. Her skin was hot and cold simultaneously, heart sinking to her feet. If the trend held…she sliced into the soap’s body with the kunai and soon discovered a cache of bound wax-paper in their centre. White powder spilled out and she resisted the urge to sneeze.

She didn’t remember getting to her feet, fingers sticky with thousands of ryo of product. In a warehouse of _this_ size…Sakura’s brain couldn’t finish the calculation, shutting down screaming. At some point, her feet bumped against stairs and she took them at a run, mechanically. The office was locked but she just smashed the door’s window and clambered through. The papers in the drawers gave her a clearer image of what was happening.

Contract copies. Product lists for each one. Folders and folders of signed deals. None of them used names, but she didn’t recognise any of the symbols- winged horse, the five-petaled bell-flower, a lady’s ring- she rifled through the sheets but out of the recent contracts, only one was signed for. A pair of theatre masks marked the contract where the signature would be.

“What have you found?” The Banchou stood in the doorway and she handed him the contracts, still numb. His nail beds were dark with ink, she noticed suddenly. “They want to make a fool out of me in my own city?” The man said softly, missing the anger she expected for such a statement. Goosebumps rippled down her spine regardless.

“There’s an annexe connected to the side.” He jerked his head, “Come on, we’re checking that out next. Be on your guard.” The Taichou was playing with a key-card when they caught up, spinning it between his fingers. Water trickled off him to puddle below.

The warehouse door opened to an empty corridor lit at intermittent intervals with fluorescent lamps. Moths fluttered around each one, large and furry and noisy. A man with an arm in a cast was fiddling with some mah-jong tiles, listening nervously to the yelling outside and leapt to his feet once he saw them. He didn’t even get the chance to call for help. The Taichou body-slammed him into the far wall and when the man was too busy wheezing, the yakuza shot him in the temple with an industrial nail gun. The injured guard dropped, no longer needing to catch his breath. There was surprisingly little blood. The Banchou knelt to pick up the dead man’s communication device. The entire manoeuvre had taken _seconds._

To Sakura’s surprise, her shock manifested as serenity. She gazed at the corpse without flinching and somehow had the mental capacity to ask what the man was looking for.

“Evidence.” The man answered idly, “Come look.” He pointed at the injury beneath the unwrapped bandage, tone getting steadily more and more dangerous. “This remind you of anything?”

Vicious teeth imprints. A raw, tiny bite mark. Sakura’s breath caught in her throat and she met his utterly unamused stare and false smile with building anticipation. They were close! The Banchou brushed off the dead man’s taint from his hands and shrugged on his coat, both of them turning to face Sakura at the same time.

"Come here and be an escapee." The Banchou beckoned and with not a little amount of cruelty, wrenched her hand behind her back.

The Taichou’s hand was smeared in ink and he wiped it on her hair, disguising the colour even further. He left a streak on her face, muttering about appearances. " _Do_ try not to break her arm." He muttered, poking his head around the corner. "I don't think her sensei will be too impressed."

The three of them strode down the corridors, hoping to bump into another guard. Sakura tried to make her act more convincing by kicking and twisting but she didn't think that the Banchou even noticed. His gaze flickered for any sign of movement.

They all heard it at the same time, a soft footfall and the creak of a hinge that needed more oiling. The Banchou’s grip tightened immediately and he clamped a hand over her mouth to stop her screaming if she _had_ been an escapee. Sakura’s heart pounded- what if she was recognised? Without her headband, her hair colour and in the dark, could they still recognise her as the conspicuous genin wandering the city from earlier?

The Taichou’s eyes narrowed. "You!" He snarled; voice rougher like he smoked a pack of cigarettes daily. "What the hell are you doing? Because it doesn't seem like you were doing your job!"

A guard and a man with a headband turned to face them. "Excuse me?" The man with the headband asked almost pleasantly. The sight of the sign with a long scratch through it sent a shiver down Sakura's spine. Dread pooled in the pit of her stomach. If the nin was _here,_ then who would trigger the trap in the forest?-

Momochi knew her _face._

Barely daring to breathe, Sakura ducked her head, biting her lip so hard that she lost feeling. This was not expected.

“Why are you here instead of handling the situation outside?” The guard snapped.

“What’s more important?” The Taichou said with gritted teeth, “That piece of rabble or stopping the kid from getting away?”

The guard looked like he had been slapped, “What?”

"You let someone escape!" The yakuza _hissed,_ furious. "What were you doing? We had to fish her out of the river before she swam away and blabbed to everyone. You didn’t even _know,_ did you? How the _fuck_ did a child pull a fast one on you? She got this far, if we hadn’t been there, no one could have stopped her!"

Would they fall for the bait? Sakura peered at the men through lowered eyelashes, taking in their expressions. The guard was as pale as milk but the shinobi’s eyes were stunningly cold despite the slight smile.

“Gato-dono…” The guard murmured, more in horror than anything else but the nin cut through his panicked mumbling.

"Well, she didn't escape." He shrugged. "Give her here and I'll put her back with a warning." Sakura stared at his outstretched hand, ice coalescing in her stomach. For once, she wasn’t shivering due to her sodden clothes. Warning? The horror stories popped into her head and refused to leave; stories of cruel punishments- of prisoners being forced to hold pieces of glowing coals in their mouths, of having artwork tattooed on their skin with soldering irons-

They wouldn’t really hand her over, would they? Fear closed around her throat.

"Consider it an apology for wasting your time." The nin continued smoothly.

The Banchou snorted. "Thanks for the offer, but we’ll handle this until the end. In case there are any more unfortunate accidents. Just lead us.” 

The nin's eyes narrowed dangerously at the implication. A few dark locks escaped from his headgear and fell across his forehead. The guard stared at their defiance, aghast. Sakura got the impression that, like the townspeople, they weren’t used to refusing what a shinobi wanted, unreasonable or not. She _wanted_ to reach for her kunai pouch. It lay heavy on her thigh, under her dress like a shackle but she knew it would blow their cover like nothing else. Facing this tense situation without a weapon in her hand…Sakura didn’t like feeling so helpless.

Eventually, the nin shrugged. "Suit yourself." He said, turning away. "Follow me then."

“You’re _mad._ ” The guard hissed as he passed them. “ _Mad._ ”

The walk was silent with none of the four parties wanting to make small talk. Above her head, the two yakuza shared a flickering glance.

“Is this going to be secure for much longer?” The Taichou asked, slightly more respectful now that they were away from the guard who he had pinned the escape upon. “Talk’s swirling. Konoha’s dispatched a team to look into the missing kids.”

The nin spared him a cold look. “I saw. They’re harmless.” He had _seen?_ How many people had seen her?! Sakura was very fed-up with this. “Konoha genin are some of the most coddled in the countries. Their sensei is too busy flirting to supervise his squad. They’ll never find us.”

Sakura felt like laughing and never stopping after a brief moment of incredulity that Obito’s plan had _worked._ The team reflected the teacher and it had saved them all from this nin’s aggression.

After several twists and turns through the tightly compacted annexe, the nin closed a bolted door behind them and nodded towards a trap door set in the ground beneath a faded carpet.

"Into the tunnel, you go." He told them calmly. "I'll follow after."

The two yakuza tensed slightly. Neither, Sakura included, liked the idea of a shinobi being at their backs in a dark enclosed tunnel. Vulnerability was an awfully fragile state to trust in. Cockroaches scuttled across the floor, hiding from the swinging lantern light. The nin smiled lazily, eyes still chilly.

"Is something the matter?"

"You go first." The Taichou told his boss. Protecting the Banchou to the very end, Sakura noted with some admiration. If the nin suddenly turned hostile, the Banchou would have time to react with his vice's death. There was something that hit very differently about undying loyalty to a superior instead of the same to a peer. The Banchou just shrugged and nodded like he had expected nothing less, forcing her to take the roughly hewn steps into the cramped darkness.

The heat beneath the earth was incredible, the air still and choking and stifling. Dust and earth shivered from the ceiling as they moved. It felt so unstable that Sakura was afraid for the men bringing it down accidentally. The man hid a curse, smacking his head off the ceiling, shoulders brushing the edges. The near-blind navigation didn’t help, her eyes struggling to adapt to the rich darkness. If a turn came up, both of them would crash headfirst into the wall.

Two vibrations behind signified that the other two had followed. Sakura swallowed and took it one step at a time, trying to put away the thought of being buried alive. Her heart was so loud that she was afraid that the nin would hear it and know that they were lying- her mouth was so dry.

As no one could see them now, the Banchou released her arm and she worked out the pins and needles in her fingers gratefully. Instead, the man rested a hand on her shoulder and leant to whisper in her ear, his hair tickling her cheek. “ _Fear is the mind-killer.”_ The Banchou breathed so faintly that she almost didn’t hear him.

Her watery nod was lost in the darkness.

Eventually, she did crash. Her forehead smashed into an iron ring set into the earth and she came to an abrupt stop, pain splitting her head. The Banchou pushed her back to his vice’s protection and went up first. Sakura kicked up a fuss for the show of it but the man shut it down before it could even start. He just picked her up and handed her off to the kneeling Banchou. She felt rather like a child.

The first thing she noticed was the cages. Each bamboo cage spanned the length of the room, wrapping around the edges. Dark untreated wood made up the roof in rough rows, more of a rudimentary log-cabin than any shed. The lack of windows disorientated her but the air through the gaps between the logs was crisp and sweet, and the unmistakeable rustling and insect calls gave away their position in the Witching Woods. Three lanterns granted them a little light, most of them nearly depleted of the strong-smelling oil. The light gleamed off numerous eyes, shadows moving nervously in the cages as the children took in the intruders. The door was bolted and locked from the _inside_. Of course, it would be, Sakura realised with a chilling shiver, how else could it masquerade as a simple storage space?

Nausea churned her stomach, Sakura too horrified by the children’s treatment to be elated at _finding_ them. The taste of bile made her saliva surprisingly hard to swallow.

Now, they just needed to get rid of the nin. She met the Banchou’s gaze, both of them in silent agreement: the man had to die. Maybe they agreed for different reasons but they could do _nothing_ with the shinobi watching their every step. The look on his face gave nothing away as he fiddled with a few curious pieces of parchment. He helped his subordinate up the rungs, face carefully blank. The second Taichou's boot cleared the entrance, the Banchou flicked the pieces of paper into the tunnel and slammed the trap door lid shut.

The sound of the explosion rocked the cabin and made the cages shake. The children cried out in fear and Sakura almost lost her footing. Fire and unbearable heat licked at the air around the edges of the trap-door and the room was illuminated once in flickering amber. Acrid smoke curled from the floor, the ground shaking as the unstable tunnel lost all stability and collapsed upon itself in a fiery inferno.

_Exploding tags?_

"They've got to have heard." The Taichou muttered.

"It doesn't matter." The Banchou dismissed the concern, sleeve over his nose and mouth as the room grew hazy, "They have to take a long way around now that the tunnel's collapsed. We have time. Brat, get the door open before we all suffocate."

He tossed her the little box of thermite and she soon had the lock falling into her hands, its internal mechanisms glowing. Luckily, there had been an external lock but it hadn’t been done. Sakura dragged the heavy bolts free and coughed as she could breathe again. Dark, spear-like trees boxed them from all sides, reaching to a speckled luminous sky. A field of blood-red flowers led to the slope to the glittering stream. The sheer disparity between the inner ugliness and the outer beauty took her breath away.

The lock on the cages was simpler, a cheap thing with brass tumblers which even she could have picked. Instead, Sakura just jammed a kunai in the lock and twisted, shaking her head internally when it fell apart into trash. She crawled inside to extend a hand to the nearest filthy child who was staring at her in wonder.

"You’re… helping us?"

"It’s alright." Sakura soothed. "I was sent from Konoha. Your mother wants you home, Niseki-kun."

At his name, the boy _flinched_ even as his head snapped up. The mention of the village had lit hope in the lines of his face, mouth dropping open. His gaze didn’t budge from her kunai- all children knew the shape of the shinobi’s major weapon- and when he next spoke, it was tinged with raw relief.

“They didn’t say what they wanted.” He whispered; eyes shiny. “Mother couldn’t have paid even if they had. I can go home?”

“All of you can,” Sakura said, fighting the urge to cry. “We won’t let this go unanswered.”

His gaze drifted past her to the open door, to the swaying leaves on the trees and the spider scuttling inside. The other children in the cage crept closer, eyes wide, tasting the freedom.

Then, the trapdoor blew outwards in a spectacularly explosive fashion, ricocheting off the bars with a heavy thunk that left deep cuts in the bamboo. Sakura felt her smile freeze and spun to see a shadow pull itself out of the ruined tunnel and brush ash off their arms.

He wasn't dead. _He wasn't dead._ How was he not dead?

Cold eyes pinned her to her position as if nails had been driven through her feet.

The singed nin sent a lantern crashing down and the dry straw ignited in an instant. The crackling light grasped his face with crooked orange fingers, highlighting how the prospect of burning all of them alive didn't faze him at all. That was probably the order, Sakura realised with an internal thunderstrike; he was to eliminate everyone, even the children if they were discovered. Dead men told no tales.

The Banchou and Taichou might have been fearsome on their own but shinobi were _feared_ for a reason. Sakura didn’t know if they could handle one in combat _while_ the cabin burned. The second they were distracted with putting out the fire or saving the children from an awful death, Sakura knew it would be over. The children shrieked in terror and her head swam with horror.

This was the _worst._ The yakuza might have been more than ready to fight but this wasn’t the time! There was _no_ time. The nin had locked onto the men as the dominant threats which gave her _seconds_ to turn the scenario over in her mind. He hadn’t realised then, that she was the kunoichi or he didn’t care.

In a move that could be considered entirely suicidal, she attracted the pissed off nin's attention and took the decision entirely out of the yakuza’s hands. Sakura was willing to bet that the nin couldn’t allow anyone to leave the building alive. They’d never find an escapee in the dense forest and Gato’s operation would be blown wide open.

She was also the closest to the door.

_If she ran, the nin would have no choice but to come after her._ The two yakuza would be free to save the children. Divide and conquer, their advantage was in numbers, why shouldn’t they create more threats than what the defenders could defend?

The Banchou saw the decision on her face. He roared his displeasure the second Sakura turned on her heel and leapt for the door. The flames were already licking at the walls in long tongues of red.

"Don't be an idiot!" The Taichou shrieked but she was already out of the door. She didn’t have the vantage to witness the nin's eyes snapping onto her fleeing form but the stricken yakuza _did._ With a narrowed glare, he did exactly what she had expected. Kicking the door shut behind him, he locked the two men and the screaming children in the burning cabin. Sakura felt awful leaving them when there was a chance that all of them could burn alive if the two men were too slow but she had other things to worry about. Namely, the furious missing-nin hunting her down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't know how two scenes got so long but they ran away from me when I wasn't looking.  
> Character thoughts in this chapter:  
> Taichou: It's so refreshing to work with a kid so sensible, why can't our kids be like that-  
> *Sakura pulls some suicidal shit*  
> Banchou: .....I need a word stronger than fuck.
> 
> Meanwhile, Sakura: I have a hard time believing this because it never happens, but I /might/ have made a mistake.


End file.
